This variable counts the number of registered motor vehicles owned or used by household members that were parked at or near the dwelling on Census night. It includes vans and company owned vehicles, but excludes motorbikes, scooters and heavy motor vehicles.
How many registered motor vehicles owned or used by residents of this dwelling were garaged or parked at or near this dwelling on the night of Tuesday 11 August 2026?
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Description
This image shows a question from the 2026 Census online form. This question asks: How many registered motor vehicles owned or used by residents of this dwelling will be garaged or parked at or near 11 Fake Street on the night of 11 August 2026?
Underneath the question text, the instructional text states: Include vans and company vehicles kept at home. Exclude motorbikes, motor scooters and heavy vehicles.
Underneath the instructional text, is a clickable More Information header. Once clicked, the More Information is shown, and states: Motor vehicles include passenger vehicles (cars, utilities, etc.), light trucks, and other vehicles like motor homes and motorised cranes. Heavy vehicles should be excluded. Heavy vehicles are defined as having a gross vehicle mass (GVM) over 4.5 tonnes. Tractors, boats and caravans should also be excluded. If there will be no registered motor vehicles owned or used by the residents of this dwelling garaged or parked at or near this dwelling on the night of 11 August 2026, enter '0' in the box. Information from this question is used for transport planning.
The response option is: Number of motor vehicles, followed by a numeric free text field.
How this variable is created
Number of motor vehicles is a dwelling variable created from the question on motor vehicles owned or used. Data is captured automatically from the written numeric response or by marking the ‘None’ box on the paper form.
This variable has single fields for values from 0 to 29. Values of 30 or more are grouped. The related variable number of motor vehicles (ranges) (VEHRD) codes responses differently, with values from one to three recorded singly, and four or more coded as ‘Four or more motor vehicles’.
History and changes
This variable was first introduced in 1966 and has been included in every Census since.
In 2001, the question also asked about the number of motorbikes and motor scooters. In 2006, this was removed due to their lower impact on the transport system.
In 2021, additional instructional text was added to clarify that heavy motor vehicles should be excluded.
