The $688 billion census question sparking tough conversations in Aussie homes tonight

“In the last week, did the person spend time doing unpaid domestic work for their household?”

The question seems simple, but its inclusion on the 2026 census has already sparked debate online and is sure to cause some awkward conversations in households across the country tonight as Australians complete the survey.

It asks Aussies to quantify the time they spend doing unpaid domestic labour like housework, cooking, cleaning, shopping and managing money, with answers ranging from zero hours a week, to less than five, all the way up to more than 30.

And it looks like men and women will be giving very different answers.

“How many couples do you think are doing the census together and getting into huge arguments about whether or not the other does more than five hours of household work in a week?” one TikTok user mused.

Have you got a story? Contact reporter Maddison Skipper: mskipper@nine.com.au

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Census day is here - this is what you need to know

Research from QUT Associate Professor Leonora Risse estimates unpaid labour is worth about $688 billion to Australia’s annual economy, and women contribute the majority of it – to the tune of about $427.3 billion per year.

After all, unpaid domestic labour was seen as ‘women’s work’ for centuries

“We definitely see that women, on average, do far more than men,” Risse, an economist specialising in gender equality, told nine.com.au.

“If we’re trying to get a snapshot of society and the economy, and we’re not counting unpaid work and care, what we’re doing is under-recognising women’s contribution to society and women’s contribution to the economy.”

But there’s more to this census question than just quantifying how much cooking and cleaning Aussie women are doing.

The unpaid domestic labour gender gap

Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has shown time and again that women perform more unpaid domestic labour than men.

Its 2024 Time Use Survey (TUS) revealed women reported doing an average of 4 hours and 53 minutes a day of unpaid work – an hour more than their male counterparts.

Unlike in decades past, when many women were excluded from the paid workforce, modern women often perform unpaid domestic duties on top of a career.

Aussie women’s workforce participation hit a record yearly average of more than 63 per cent in 2025, and most of them still put in hours of unpaid work when they get home.

As a result, a growing number of women are struggling to keep up with the juggle of paid work, domestic duties, parenting and other responsibilities.

More than one in three women reported always or often feeling rushed or pressed for time in the TUS, and that figure was even higher (one in two) among women aged 35 to 44.

That’s not to say the blokes aren’t contributing; if anything, there’s been a positive shift.

Men are taking on more unpaid domestic labour, fathers are taking more primary carer parental leave, and one third of government funded Paid Parental Leave recipients were men in 2024-25.

Why is it in the census?

Unpaid domestic work is included in the census for the same reason paid work is: because it’s a major part of Australian society.

Tracking unpaid domestic labour provides data that can lay the foundation for policies that make it easier for Aussies to balance paid and unpaid work.

“One of the biggest constraints, if not the biggest constraints, on people’s capacity to participate in the paid workforce is their unpaid work and care responsibilities,” Risse said.

“That’s why we need to keep improving policies in that space, policies like supporting working from home, flexible work arrangements, caregiving leave, to enable all people to blend their paid workforce role and their domestic family responsibilities, rather than it being a trade-off.”

That goes for men as well as women.

“It’s really important that we keep pursuing policies like paid parental leave for fathers, and we encourage flexible work amongst men as well, so it’s not we break down some of those gender patterns as well,” Risse said.

Collecting data about unpaid domestic work also makes it more visible, which can go a long way in making Aussies feel like their contributions to their households and broader society are seen and valued.

“The very act of counting it can be incredibly meaningful for the people who are doing this work and holding a thread that holds our society together,” Risse said.

And it can spark important conversations at home about who does that work.

“It can also be a prompt for people to stop and think between themselves, ‘How are we distributing that domestic workload between us? Is it fair?’” Risse said.

“If we don’t measure this, it remains in the shadows, and it’s taken for granted.”