How to complete the Census if you’re in the closet

Census Day is coming on March 21st and for the first time ever the census will ask about sexual orientation and trans status.

Every household will receive a letter with a code to fill in the census online, but if you’d rather fill it in just for you, or change the answers your household has given, we can help you to do this anonymously. This means anyone you share a household with cannot see your answers. This is helpful if you are not out to your family or the people you live with. 

  1. Visit census.gov.uk and click ‘Start Census’
  2. Scroll down and click ‘Need to answer separately from your household?’
  3. Click ‘Request an individual access code’

An individual access code lets you answer your census questions separately from the people you live with, so they can’t see your answers.

No one in your household will be told that you have requested an individual access code

Even if your household has already completed the census, your individual answers will take priority over any information submitted about you in the household census. 

You can trust the census to keep your data safe, no individual data is released for 100 years.

If you need more support you can book an appointment with our census support advisors here. Our volunteer advisors are trained and ready to help.