Census hailed a big success, but 670,000 people fail to hit the 'send' button

Around the nation on Tuesday night, Australians sat down to fill out their census forms but among those who opted for the Internet option there's been a problem.

Paul Lowe, head of the Population Census Program, said many people completed all the questions on the online census forms but neglected to hit the all important send button.

"We have got over 670,000 households that have logged on but haven't hit that submit button. I encourage people to log back on and hit that submit button," he told reporters in Canberra.

In all other areas, the census people are billing this four-yearly gathering of national data from 9.8 million households a rousing success.

Mr Lowe said more than two million households logged onto the online census form with more than 100 census submissions arriving every second at peak time.

Despite apprehensions that the online census system would be overwhelmed, Mr Lowe said it never went anywhere near capacity.

He said there was still plenty of time for people to either complete a paper or online form.

"I am expecting we will see over eight per cent of households in the next few days logging back on," he said. "Our collectors will be starting to go back out there and pick up the paper forms but they'll be out in the field until the end of August."

Mr Lowe said the census aimed for 30 per cent online submission of forms.

"I am confident we are going to reach that and exceed it," he said.

Mr Lowe said the first data would be released in June next year, revealing, among much else, the contentious issue about who does the most housework.

"It always attracts some interest - the unpaid work and who in the household does the most unpaid," he said.

Jill Charker, first assistant statistician with the Australian Bureau of Statistics, said the census data was widely used across all levels of government in planning infrastructure and schools.

"Things like schools, planning for hospitals, medical services, even things like parks and community facilities are really underpinned by census data," she said.

"We know that community and non-government not for profit organisations also use census data in a range of ways to underpin what they do."

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