Same-Sex Couples

This article features in Episode 14 of the

Australian Social Trends Podcast

series.

Listen to the episode, or subscribe to the series, here

, or via

.

NUMBER OF SAME-SEX COUPLES - 1996-2011



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

.



PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE IN COUPLE RELATIONSHIPS BY AGE - 2011



Age range (years)



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

AGE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PARTNERS IN COUPLES - 2011



Age difference between partners



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing



PERCENTAGE OF COUPLES WITH CHILDREN(a) LIVING IN THE FAMILY - 2011



(a) Includes all dependent and non-dependent children in the family.

Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WITH A BACHELOR DEGREE OR ABOVE, BY AGE - 2011



Age group (years)



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

PERCENTAGE OF EMPLOYED PEOPLE WHO WERE MANAGERS OR PROFESSIONALS BY AGE - 2011



Age group (years)



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

MOST COMMON OCCUPATIONS, MALES, 2011 Men in same-sex couples % Men in opposite-sex couples % Retail managers 3.7 Truck drivers 2.9 Sales assistants (General) 2.9 Retail managers 2.3 Advertising, public relations and sales managers 2.9 Electricians 1.9 Registered nurses 1.9 Metal fitters and machinists 1.6 Contract, program and project administrators 1.6 Carpenters and joiners 1.6 Hairdressers 1.5 Construction managers 1.6 General clerks 1.5 Accountants 1.5 Cafe and restaurant managers 1.5 Advertising, public relations and sales managers 1.5 Accountants 1.5 Motor mechanics 1.5 Solicitors 1.3 Sales representatives 1.4





MOST COMMON OCCUPATIONS, FEMALES, 2011 Women in same-sex couples % Women in opposite-sex couples % Registered nurses 4.3 General clerks 5.1 Retail managers 2.4 Sales assistants (General) 4.9 Sales assistants (General) 2.3 Registered nurses 4.6 Secondary school teachers 2.2 Primary school teachers 3.1 Police 2.2 Receptionists 2.8 Welfare support workers 2.0 Office managers 2.6 General clerks 1.8 Bookkeepers 2.3 Contract, program and project administrators 1.8 Retail managers 2.3 Primary school teachers 1.7 Accounting clerks 2.2 University lecturers and tutors 1.5 Child carers 2.1

PERCENTAGE OF MEN WITH INCOME OF $2,000 OR MORE PER WEEK, BY AGE - 2011



Age group (years)



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing



PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN WITH INCOME OF $2,000 OR MORE PER WEEK, BY AGE - 2011



Age group (years)



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

PERCENTAGE OF COUPLES WHERE BOTH PARTNERS DID ABOUT THE SAME AMOUNT OF UNPAID DOMESTIC WORK (a) - 2011



(a) Couples in which both partners reported amount of unpaid work within the same range on the Census form.

Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE IN COUPLES WHO DID FIVE OR MORE HOURS OF UNPAID DOMESTIC WORK (a), BY SEX - 2011



(a) In the week prior to the Census.

Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

PERCENTAGE OF ALL COUPLES THAT WERE SAME-SEX, BY POPULATION OF CITY OR TOWN - 2011



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

PERCENTAGE OF ALL COUPLES THAT WERE SAME-SEX, BY STATE OR TERRITORY - 2011



(a) includes Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Jervis Bay Territory.

Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

CAPITAL CITY SUBURBS(a) WITH THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF SAME-SEX COUPLES(b) - 2011

Male same-sex couples Female same-sex couples % of couples % of couples Darlinghurst, NSW 17.9 St Peters, NSW 6.0 Potts Point, NSW 17.8 Newtown, NSW 5.7 Surry Hills, NSW 17.3 Erskineville, NSW 5.4 Elizabeth Bay, NSW 16.3 Enmore, NSW 5.3 Redfern, NSW 14.5 Lewisham, NSW 4.2 Erskineville, NSW 11.0 Alexandria, NSW 3.6 Alexandria, NSW 10.4 Tempe, NSW 3.5 Chippendale, NSW 10.3 Chippendale, NSW 3.4 Darlington, NSW 10.3 Marrickville, NSW 3.2 Rushcutters Bay, NSW 10.1 Stanmore, NSW 3.0

(a) Suburbs with less than a total of 250 couples excluded.

(b) As a percentage of all couples.

Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing



MALE SAME-SEX COUPLES AS A PERCENTAGE OF ALL COUPLES, INNER SYDNEY - 2011



FEMALE SAME-SEX COUPLES AS A PERCENTAGE OF ALL COUPLES, INNER SYDNEY - 2011



PERCENTAGE OF COUPLES LIVING IN A FLAT/UNIT/APARTMENT OR ROW/TERRACE HOUSE - 2011



Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE THAT LIVED ELSEWHERE FIVE YEARS AGO BY TYPE OF COUPLE - 2011



Age group (years) Source: 2011 Census of Population and Housing

DATA SOURCES AND DEFINITIONS



The data used in this article comes from ABS Census of Population and Housing which has the most detailed and reliable data on same-sex couples. Counts of same-sex couples are available starting from the 1996 Census and ABS 2007 Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing, which collected data on sexual preference.



While information on same-sex relationships is collected in a number of ABS surveys, the relatively small sample size of these collections means the amount of analysis is limited, therefore this article mostly uses data from the last Census conducted in 2011.



Same-sex couple refers to two people of the same sex who report a de facto or married partnership in the relationship question, and who are usually resident in the same household.

Opposite-sex couple refers to two people who report a registered marriage or in a de facto opposite-sex relationship, and who are usually resident in the same household.



Under the Commonwealth Marriage Act (1961), legal marriage must be between a man and a woman; and same-sex marriages performed overseas are not recognised as legal marriages in Australia. For the 2011 Census, people that reported on the Census Form that they were in a same-sex marriage were coded as de facto couples, in line with the Marriage Act. However, for those same-sex couples that reported that they were married, a new classification was developed 'Relationship as reported' to retain the relationship of same-sex couples as they reported it on their Census Form, whether as husbands or wife or de facto partner. There were 1,300 same-sex couples where one person was described as the husband or wife of the other. The reasons why people in Australia might report that they are the husband or wife of someone of the same sex cannot be known from Census data but may include having been married in a jurisdiction other than Australia; having registered their relationship under state or territory law; having gone through a ceremony; simply regarding themselves as married; or considering that husband or wife is the term that best describes their relationship. See the Fact Sheet Counts of same-sex couples in the 2011 Census for more information.



References to suburbs or other areas are using the State Suburb Classification (SSC). This classification aligns closely to officially gazetted suburb and locality boundaries particularly in urban areas.



In the Census, unpaid domestic work refers to the amount of time spent last week doing unpaid domestic work for their household, including housework, food and drink preparation, cleaning, laundry, gardening, home maintenance and repairs, household shopping and management of finances. The data is collected in a number of categories: nil, less than 5 hours, 5 to 14 hours, 15 to 29 hours, and 30 hours or more. In this article, where both partners in a couple reported that the amount of work they did was in the same category, it is considered that both partners did about the same amount of unpaid domestic work.



The analysis of occupations in this article uses the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). For the purposes of this article, occupations are classified as being male-dominated when 80% or more people working in that occupation were male, and female-dominated when 80% or more people working in that occupation were female. For more information about occupation classifications please see ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, First Edition, Revision 1 (cat. no. 1220.0).



Unless otherwise stated, the data in this article refers to people aged 15 years and over.



For more detailed definitions please see Census Dictionary, 2011 (cat. no. 2901.0) and Reflecting a Nation: Same-sex Couple Families (cat. no. 2071.0). Back to top

