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[–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)

To hazard a guess (don't know for sure, not even for my own country), it's for future historians to be able to build up a picture of who was where and when.

What might seem obvious and common knowledge now might not be in 100 years.

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  • [–] 5 points 3 months ago

    Much shorter term, the point of the census is to know where people are and what they need, so government spending can be done effectively. No point building hospitals/centrelink/etc in areas that don't need them.

    Australian census records are (opt-in) deanonymised after 100 years, so there is some historical value.

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