Australians filling out the 2026 Census are being asked a deceptively simple question: what is your ancestry?
English, Irish, Scottish, Chinese, Italian and German are among the choices displayed on the form. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander appear separately.
Then there is another option: Australian.
For millions of Australians from migrant backgrounds, that raises a less straightforward question. If they consider themselves Australian, can they nominate Australian as their ancestry alongside the ethnic or cultural backgrounds of their families?
The answer from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ own methodology appears to be yes, but the way the question is framed exposes some of the difficulty in trying to measure ancestry in one of the world’s most culturally diverse countries.
The 2026 Census allows people to nominate up to four ancestries, an increase from two in 2021. The ABS tells respondents with more than four to provide those with which they “most closely identify”. If people are unsure, it suggests considering the ethnic or cultural origins of their parents or grandparents.
Those instructions can point respondents in different directions.
Consider an Australian citizen from an Indian migrant background who identifies culturally as Australian but whose parents and grandparents were born in India. Should the answer be Indian? A regional or linguistic identity such as Malayali or Punjabi? Australian? Or some combination of them?
The ABS classification underpinning the Census provides an important clue.
It says cultural and ethnic classification is influenced more by “self-perceived group identification” than historical origins. The ABS says this is why categories corresponding to national cultural identities, including Australian, are recognised. It also says its recommended method for collecting ancestry or ethnicity is a self-assessed response and that no attempt is made to historically determine an individual’s origins.
That makes Australian ancestry quite different from simply asking where someone’s ancestors were born.
The ABS goes further in explaining why “Australian” exists as a category. Its 2025 Australian Standard Classification of Cultural and Ethnic Groups says a distinct Australian cultural identity has emerged since European settlement, leading to Australian being included within the classification.
Australian, Australian Aboriginal, Australian South Sea Islander, Torres Strait Islander and Norfolk Islander are separately coded within the classification’s “Australian Peoples” group.
The distinction matters because Australian ancestry is sometimes casually understood as referring to Australians whose families have been in the country for several generations, particularly those descended from European settlers. That is not how the ABS formally defines eligibility to select it.
The issue is therefore less about whether Australians from migrant backgrounds are permitted to identify as Australian on the ancestry question. The ABS methodology provides considerable room for self-identification
Its classification is designed to record claims of association or identification with cultural and ethnic groups rather than determine people’s identities through genealogy. The ABS also explicitly recognises that people can identify with more than one cultural or ethnic group, giving examples such as Irish Australian and Italian Australian.
The question has long presented difficulties.
Ancestry was first included in the Census in 1986 but was dropped from the 1991 and 1996 counts after the ABS found the question had not performed as expected, probably because respondents interpreted it in different ways.
It returned in 2001. Later Censuses asked people to nominate the ancestries with which they most identified while considering the backgrounds of their parents and grandparents.
The ABS has also wrestled more recently with whether ancestry adequately captures the way Australians understand their identities.
During preparations for the 2026 Census, it tested a separate question on ethnic identity. Different formulations included “ethnic group/s”, “cultural background”, “ethnic and cultural heritage” and “the culture you belong to”.
The proposal was abandoned after testing found people were unlikely to have a consistent understanding of ethnic identity or of how it differed from ancestry. Instead, the ABS decided to expand the existing ancestry question from two possible responses to four.
That decision may make the 2026 question easier for Australians whose identities do not fit neatly into one category.
A person with roots in Kerala, for example, could identify their ancestry as Malayali and Indian while also selecting Australian if that reflects their cultural identification. Malayali and Indian are both recognised separately within the ABS ancestry classification, as is Australian
A person with roots in Kerala, for example, could identify their ancestry as Malayali and Indian while also selecting Australian if that reflects their cultural identification. Malayali and Indian are both recognised separately within the ABS ancestry classification, as is Australian. The Census does not require a respondent to choose between an Australian identity and an ancestral connection elsewhere.
The numbers involved are substantial.
Australian was the second most commonly reported ancestry in the 2021 Census, selected by about 7.6 million people, or 29.9 per cent of the population. English was first at 33 per cent, followed by Irish at 9.5 per cent, Scottish at 8.6 per cent and Chinese at 5.5 per cent. Indian ancestry was reported by almost 784,000 people, or 3.1 per cent.
The ABS itself appears conscious of the effect the displayed options can have on those numbers.
For 2026, “Australian” has deliberately been retained as the final tick-box option before the spaces where respondents can write other ancestries. The ABS says its placement is intended to encourage people to provide more detailed ancestry responses.
That creates an interesting statistical question as Australia changes.
More than half the population is either born overseas or has at least one parent born overseas. The 2021 Census found 29.3 per cent of people were first-generation Australians and another 22.2 per cent were second generation.
For these Australians, ancestry and Australian identity can readily coexist.
The Census treats birthplace, citizenship, Indigenous status and ancestry as different measures. Someone can therefore be born overseas, hold Australian citizenship and identify with Australian ancestry while also recording another cultural or ethnic ancestry.
Indeed, the 2021 data shows Australian ancestry was not confined to Australian-born people. About 218,000 overseas-born residents reported Australian among their ancestries.
The issue is therefore less about whether Australians from migrant backgrounds are permitted to identify as Australian on the ancestry question. The ABS methodology provides considerable room for self-identification.
The harder question is what Australians understand the word “ancestry” to mean when they encounter it on the Census form.
For one person it may describe where their grandparents came from. For another it may describe an ethnic community. For another it may be a language-linked cultural identity. And for someone whose family arrived in Australia relatively recently but who regards Australia as home, “Australian” may be part of the answer too.
The Census has four boxes available in 2026. How Australians choose to fill them may tell us as much about the country’s evolving sense of identity as it does about where their ancestors came from.
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