Tonight, 9.8 million households across Australia will answer up to 60 questions about their homes on the 100th anniversary of the census in Australia.
The questions range from your age and sex to your religion, where you work, how you travel to work, what type of home you live in and even the number of vehicles you own.
Participation in the census is compulsory, so everyone - including 26,255 people in prisons, people staying at hotels and on cruise ships docked in Australia, same-sex couples who have married overseas, and newborn babies. If you don't take part, there's a $110 fine, so we have dutifully filled ours in.
Data collected from the previous census is quite funny. Did you know that Australia has 58,053 Jedi Knights. Huh? When I went to look up what a Jedi Knight is, I stumbled on the Wookiepedia, the Star Wars wiki. Apparently the 'Jedi census phenomenon' is a grassroots movement started in 2001 urging residents to record their religion as 'Jedi' or 'Jedi Knight' on the national census. Australia is obviously participating. Crazy Ozzies.
Other facts we didn't know: 400 languages are spoken in homes throughout Australia, and that 105 people speak an invented language. Is Dunglish one of those? Australia has 670 parking inspectors (boo!), 36 whalers, 12 squid jiggers, 44,553 chefs, 130,129 truck drivers, 6,757 sportspeople (en toch geen goede voetballers), 866 tree fallers, 55,995 bar attendants and 389,465 New Zealanders who call Australia home.
Oh, and someone said their religion was Moroccan Chicken.
The questions range from your age and sex to your religion, where you work, how you travel to work, what type of home you live in and even the number of vehicles you own.
Participation in the census is compulsory, so everyone - including 26,255 people in prisons, people staying at hotels and on cruise ships docked in Australia, same-sex couples who have married overseas, and newborn babies. If you don't take part, there's a $110 fine, so we have dutifully filled ours in.
Data collected from the previous census is quite funny. Did you know that Australia has 58,053 Jedi Knights. Huh? When I went to look up what a Jedi Knight is, I stumbled on the Wookiepedia, the Star Wars wiki. Apparently the 'Jedi census phenomenon' is a grassroots movement started in 2001 urging residents to record their religion as 'Jedi' or 'Jedi Knight' on the national census. Australia is obviously participating. Crazy Ozzies.
Other facts we didn't know: 400 languages are spoken in homes throughout Australia, and that 105 people speak an invented language. Is Dunglish one of those? Australia has 670 parking inspectors (boo!), 36 whalers, 12 squid jiggers, 44,553 chefs, 130,129 truck drivers, 6,757 sportspeople (en toch geen goede voetballers), 866 tree fallers, 55,995 bar attendants and 389,465 New Zealanders who call Australia home.
Oh, and someone said their religion was Moroccan Chicken.
