This variable records whether a person has Australian citizenship. The data is used to understand the tendency of different migrant groups to take up citizenship and to measure the size of the groups eligible to vote.
All persons
| Code | Category |
|---|---|
1 | Australian citizen |
2 | Not an Australian citizen |
& | Not stated |
V | Overseas visitor |
Number of categories: 4
This variable is created from responses to the Australian citizen question. The responses are captured automatically from mark box responses so the risk of processing error is minimal. Respondents are asked to mark only one response. When respondents provide more than one, responses are accepted in the order they appeared on the form and the extra response is rejected.
A question on national citizenship has been asked on every Census since 1911. However, prior to 1986 the specific question wording asked to specify country of citizenship or their 'nationality' rather than ask if they were an Australian citizen.
For 2021 the category labels have been updated: