2900.0 - Census of Population and Housing: Understanding the Census and Census Data, Australia , 2016  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 08/11/2017  First Issue
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Number of Children Ever Born (TISP, TISRP)

This variable counts the number of children ever born to each female aged 15 years and over.

This variable is applicable to all female persons age 15 years or older.

How this variable is coded

Data for this variable is captured automatically from written numeric responses, or the 'None' mark box. This process is subject to low levels of recognition error.

Variable history

This question was first asked in the 1981 Census. On the 2011 Census form, the question asked for the number of children ever born to each female aged 15 years or more, with an instruction to include live births only. For 2016 were changes to the instructions provided when completing this question. The instruction to include live births only was removed due to the sensitivities involved.

Non-response rate

Item non-response rates are a measure of how many people did not respond to a particular question as a proportion of the total number of people the question was applicable to. In this instance the response is left as not stated.

The majority of item non-response is attributable to the people who did not respond to the Census at all. Refer to item non-response rates for more information. The second and smaller contributor to item non-response is when people return a Census form but may not answer a particular question(s). For more information, refer to Understanding Census data quality.

The non-response rate for this variable was 8.0% (6.0% in 2011).

Data usage notes

The data may include a small proportion of persons with unusually high numbers of children ever born, as all numeric responses are accepted as reported. For the Census online form, females (and persons who identified as 'other sex') aged 15 years and over were asked this question, whereas male respondents were not asked this question.

Further information

Ranged data is also available from the variable Number of Children Ever Born (ranges).
A definition for Number of Children Ever Born is available in the 2016 Census Dictionary.

Household form question image

Question 32 as it appeared on the 2016 Census Household Paper Form:
Image: 2016 Household Paper Form - Question 32. For each female, how many babies has she ever given birth to?
A text only version of the online Census Household form is available from the Downloads tab.