NY wrote
Rod Speed wrote

No, that is the statistical information that is the whole point of
the census and that data is available quite quickly after the census
is done and is always available after that. What is destroyed is the
filled out individual census forms that contain the information that
compromises the privacy of those who filled out the forms,

Interesting that Australia chose to destroy that personal information
permanently, rather than just embargo it for a period of time (eg 100
years, as in the UK) so as to prevent (to a good approximation) any
information being released about people who are still living.

Yeah, it is always controversial here whether we should
keep doing that, because it does mean that historical
research is much harder with well known people etc.

But after watching a couple of episodes of 'who do you think you
are' I can understand the logic of the approach we take. A couple
of the ancestors of some of those whose ancestors were traced
turned out to have been brothel madams and stuff like that,

On another similar series, someone turned out to to be
one of the descendants of one of the worst of the one
of the Nazi concentration camp guards who was notorious
to shooting any of the prisoners who took his fancy from
the balcony of his house for a bit of light sport.

That one didnt come out of census records but it wouldnt
be surprising if some other ones have done. Not all of the
kids of the worst of the Nazi hierarchy were killed by their
parents in the last days of the 3rd Reich and it wouldnt be
too surprising if their descendants arent too keen that it
would be possible to work out who their ancestors were
72 years later etc.

Or are you saying that *some* of the personal information (eg name, age,
relation to head of house, address) is transcribed from the forms and is
available after a suitable embargo period for the benefit of genealogists,

No, that data is never available.

but additional info (eg religion, sexual preference, income) is discarded
after analysis?

No, it isnt done selectively. Its all destroyed and only
the unidenfiable statistical information is ever available
to the general public.

The same thing is done with medical records in
some countrys but the problem is that with the
more obscure and unusual medical problems it
is often possible to work out who the individual
is even when in theory its been anonymised.