Same-sex couples favouring ACT

Australian Bureau of Statistics ACT office regional director Marietta O'Connell said there were 872 same-sex households - or 1744 people - in the ACT last year, up from 631 in 2006. This means people in 0.6 per cent of Canberra households declared they were in same-sex relationships. It does not include the number of same-sex couples who either did not declare their relationship or who did not live together.

Nationally, 0.48 per cent of householders said they were in same-sex relationships. There were 33,714 reported relationships, up from 25,600 in 2006.

For the first time, Australia's same-sex couples who describe themselves as ''married'' have been recorded in census data. About 4 per cent - or 1338 - said they were married, the rest that they were in de facto relationships.

There are more male same-sex couples (17,583) than female (16,131). There were 675 men who reported their relationship as married, compared to 661 women.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the figures showed that more than 2600 Australians believed in marriage so much they had travelled overseas, because same-sex weddings could not be performed in Australia. ''I'm sure many of these couples would have preferred to marry the person they love in the country they love, but unfortunately the Marriage Act continues to discriminate against them,'' she said.

In previous censuses, all same-sex couples were classified as de facto partners, regardless of how they had described themselves when filling out the form.

There are 12,731 same-sex couples in NSW, 8722 in Victoria, 5986 in Queensland and 2576 in Western Australia. The Northern Territory has the fewest, with 288.

Canberra man Ivan Hinton said he was pleased so many other people in same-sex couples had had their relationships recorded.

''I think Canberra is a bubble of tolerance … but we have pockets of overt discrimination in Canberra, especially with young people,'' he said. with Adrian Lowe