Express interest
Analysis · Policy

Australia’s count of 2.8 million businesses does not identify LGBTIQA+ owned businesses

The national business count records what Australian businesses do, where they operate and how many people they employ, but it does not record whether their owners are LGBTIQA+. The 2026 Census will provide some information on LGBTIQA+ people who work in their own business from October 2027, more slowly and less completely than many will expect, and it will not produce a count of LGBTIQA+ owned enterprises.

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Policy

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Pride in Business, a Just Gold publication. Disclosures and editorial principles

The national business count

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia had 2,814,778 actively trading businesses at 30 June 2026, of which 996,203 employed staff. Over the 2025 to 2026 year, 460,461 businesses started trading and 375,331 stopped trading.

These figures are compiled from administrative records, namely Australian Business Number registrations and tax data, and the ABS publishes them by industry, state and territory, sector, legal structure and employment size. The series does not describe the people who own the businesses and does not identify LGBTIQA+ ownership in any form. Any claim about the number of LGBTIQA+ owned businesses operating in Australia therefore cannot be based on this data.

The staged release of 2026 Census data

The 2026 Census asked everyone aged 16 and over about gender and sexual orientation for the first time, with an option to decline. When this information can be linked to business ownership depends on the release schedule, because the first release, due in June 2027, will include sexual orientation and gender, while status in employment, the topic that records whether a person is an employee or works in their own business, is scheduled for the second release in October 2027.

October 2027 is therefore the earliest point at which business owners could be described by sexual orientation. Even then, whether particular cross tabulations are published will depend on the data products the ABS releases, the quality of the responses and the confidentiality protections it applies to small numbers.

The difference between owners and enterprises

When those tables are released they will describe individual people, so that two LGBTIQA+ partners who own a firm together will be counted as two owners, and a single LGBTIQA+ owner among several partners will be counted as an owner whether or not they control the business.

The distinction affects supplier diversity directly, because those systems define a business by who owns and controls it. The Indigenous Procurement Policy is moving to a test of 51 per cent First Nations ownership and control, and WEConnect International certifies businesses that are at least 51 per cent owned, managed and controlled by women. The Census cannot identify which businesses would meet a test of this kind, so although it will provide new information about LGBTIQA+ people who work for themselves, it cannot produce a count of LGBTIQA+ owned businesses, and any estimate derived from it should be published as a range with its method fully disclosed.

The practical cost of the data gap

The absence of data has a practical cost for LGBTIQA+ owners, because programs tend to be designed, funded and evaluated around populations that can be measured. Indigenous businesses can be counted through a verified register and social enterprises through certification, but LGBTIQA+ owned businesses fall outside both mechanisms, which makes them easy to overlook in any policy discussion that starts from the number of businesses involved.

Counting carries its own risks, since a register of LGBTIQA+ owners would raise substantial issues of privacy, disclosure and data custody, and these should be resolved before any such register is established. Until then, published work on LGBTIQA+ owned businesses should state clearly what is known, what is estimated and what cannot yet be measured.

Sources

  1. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, July 2022 to June 2026
  2. Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2026 Census topics and data release plan
  3. National Indigenous Australians Agency, The Indigenous Procurement Policy is changing
  4. WEConnect International

Source pages last checked 19 October 2026.

Pride in Business publishes analysis on LGBTIQA+ economic participation in Australia. It is funded and published through Just Gold’s impact program.

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