Same-sex couples of Seaford Meadows small area forecast

Same-sex couples explained

Same-sex couples shows couple families by the sex of both partners.

These figures are Place Forecast estimates based on Census data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The three couple-family types are:

• Female same-sex couple family: two females living together as a couple. They may or may not have children.
• Male same-sex couple family: two males living together as a couple. They may or may not have children.
• Opposite-sex couple family: two people of different sexes living together as a couple. They may or may not have children.

Same-sex marriages have been counted alongside other registered marriages since 9 December 2017. The 2021 Census was the first to count them on the same basis as opposite-sex marriages. Same-sex de facto couples have always been counted as couple families.

The total counts couple families by place of enumeration on Census night. That is where each family slept, not where they usually live. The marital status pages use usual residence instead. The total leaves out one-parent families, other family types, lone people, and group households.

The ABS does not publish a Not stated count for couple type at this scale. Blank answers are added to the published couple-family totals.

A zero here does not mean no same-sex couples live in the area. In small rural and remote LGAs, both the female and male same-sex groups can be published as zero.

Comparing 2016 with 2021

Both Censuses count same-sex couple families, so this page can show the two years side by side. Same-sex couples have been counted as couple families since the 2011 Census. What changed in 2021 is that a registered same-sex marriage could be recorded as a marriage, after the law changed on 9 December 2017. So a change between the two years is partly a change in the number of couples and partly a change in how freely people reported. These figures cannot separate the two.

The 2021 Census was taken on 10 August 2021, when Greater Sydney and all of Victoria were under stay-at-home orders. These figures count families where they were on Census night, so more families were counted at home in 2021 than in 2016. That lifts the count in residential areas and lowers it where people would otherwise have been away.

A change at council level is worth reading. A change for one small area is not. The counts are small, the ABS adjusts small cells, and the two years are adjusted separately, so a shift of a few families in one small area can be that adjustment.

Reading this data fairly

These figures show how people answered Census questions. Here are the equity caveats to keep in mind. They keep the numbers fair:

• The Census records sex as female or male only, and codes each couple from those two values. So trans, non-binary, and intersex people are not shown separately. Saying more about sex and gender would need a different data source.
• The couple bond is only part of family life. In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kinship, and in many culturally and linguistically diverse households, care is shared across many adults and homes.
• Read each couple type as a count of how people answered. It is not a measure of need or a judgement.

See the marker methodology for how these figures are calculated and their limitations.