Unfortunately, for parents slogging it out through remote learning for their children, Gruen concedes there is no specific question to capture this super-human effort. However, he expects families will clock their hours for this under the “unpaid work” question. The gendered split of increased childcare responsibilities will also be revealed. Although, Gruen says, the results of surveys undertaken during lockdown last year were crystal clear: “Massively more women were doing it than men.”

On the happy side, this year’s census will allow us to see for the first time the number and locations of Aussie couples who have celebrated a same-sex marriage since it was legalised.

For the first time, Australians will be able to identify as being of “non-binary sex”. However, despite the urging of LGBTQI groups, there will still be no questions on gender identity or sexual orientation.

Gruen says the ABS considered the case for including these questions at length, but ultimately decided against. He explains: “For some people they understand completely what these different concepts are: sex, gender, sexual orientation. But for quite a lot of people, they’re not clear about it, and if you have a survey that is conducted by a trained interviewer, they can make sure that the people who are answering the question understand what they are being asked. Whereas with the census you can’t. You’ve just got to put the questions in a form and hope for the best.”

Gruen adds, however, that the ABS has two separate surveys in the field, due to report next year, about the gender identity and sexual orientation of Australians.

A new question has, however, been added to help policymakers better identify the health outcomes of veterans, with respondents asked to state if they have ever served in the Australian Defence Force.

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For Indigenous Australians, the framing of questions on language and ancestry have been modified in a bid to allow greater identification of Indigenous culture. The explanatory text under the question of languages spoken from home now specifically prompts Indigenous Australians to include their language in the “other – please specify” box.

Elsewhere, Gruen also expects to see a continued rise in the proportion of people identifying as “non religious” and a continuing decline in the rate of outright home ownership.

And he’s adamant he’ll protect your information. Yes, you are expected to provide both your name and address, but this information is later destroyed, he says: “We have a legal responsibility to make sure people’s identity is not disclosed and with very big penalties for us if that happens.”

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Having learnt from the 2016 census night cyber attack, the Bureau of Statistics has already sent the census website live and more than 2 million Aussies have already done their civic duty.

Dr Allen stresses that the half an hour you spend doing yours tonight will contribute to the creation of a precious data bank that can be used to improve the lives of disadvantaged Australians for years to come.

Her final message? “Fill in your form. It’s so important. Also, what else are people going to do?”

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