Image
Description
Is Person 1:
If these options do not describe the person, they can Select something other than male or female.
Male
Female
Parent indicator (FPIP)
Latest release
Census of Population and Housing: Census dictionary
Reference period
2021
Released
15/10/2021
Definition
This variable records the usually resident parent in a family household. It identifies parents of children in family households, provided the parent and child were counted in the same family, or were reported as temporarily absent on Census Night.
Scope
Parents present in the household on Census Night
Categories
| Code | Category |
|---|---|
| 1 | Male parent |
| 2 | Female parent |
| @ | Not applicable |
| V | Overseas visitor |
Number of categories: 4
Not applicable (@) category comprises:
- Other families
- Non-family/non-classifiable households
- Group household member
- Lone person
- Other non-classifiable relationship
- Unoccupied private dwellings
- Non-private dwellings
- Migratory, off-shore and shipping SA1s
- Visitor (from within Australia)
See Understanding supplementary codes for more information.
An undercount of male and female parents has been identified for the 2021 Census. This will impact the category counts for this variable. For more information, read the Data use considerations section below.
Question(s) from the Census form
Is the person: Male, Female, Non-binary sex
What is the person’s relationship to Person 1/Person 2?
How this variable is created
This variable is derived from the sex and relationship in household questions on the Census form.
This variable identifies parents of children in family households, provided the parent and child were counted in the same family on Census Night, or reported as 'Person temporarily absent' (PTA) on Census Night.
Parents are counted if there are:
- dependent children aged under 15 years
- dependent students aged 15–24 years
- non-dependent children present in the family.
Children under 15 years of age are allocated a 'nominal parent' if their parent/s are not present in the household on Census Night, or if the parent/s were not reported as temporarily absent. 'Nominal parents' can be the child's sibling, grandparent, aunt/uncle or other related individuals. Only dependent grandchildren-grandparent relationships are counted. Non-dependent grandchildren are excluded.
History and changes
This variable is new for 2021.
Data use considerations
Parents of children or students reported in Census data releases will include same-sex parents and opposite sex parents.
This variable does not have a non-response rate as it is created during Census processing by using responses from more than one question on the Census form.
An error has been identified with the 2021 Parent indicator (FPIP) variable for parents in couple families with children, when all children in the family were reported as 'Person temporarily absent' (PTA) from home on Census night. These parents have been incorrectly classified to the Not applicable category.
There are 97,359 people who were a husband/wife/partner in a couple family with children who are incorrectly in the Not applicable category for FPIP. These people should have been included in the male and female parent categories of FPIP.
The correct data counts can be generated within the 2021 Census - counting persons, place of enumeration TableBuilder dataset by creating a table using FPIP, SEXP, FMCF (categories 2 and 3 grouped together) and RLHP (categories 12-18 and 21, grouped and used as a filter), this is shown in the image below.
The incorrect original Male Parent (1) and Female Parent (2) counts of FPIP, have been corrected with the addition of the 97,359 parents. The corrected Male Parent count is 3,062,913 (3) and Female Parent Count is 3,788,471 (4).
