The website of the Central Statistics Office says the CSO “recognises the importance of accounting for gender identity as distinct from sex”, and that work is actively under way to introduce a question on ‘gender identity’ for the next census.

As part of this work the CSO is testing questions on gender identity in its Labour Force and Pulse surveys in order to devise a way of asking the appropriate question and providing for the “appropriate range of answers”.

There will be a public consultation later this year on what questions should go into the census after the one scheduled for April, the spokeswoman said.

The Govt agency also said that people who choose not to declare themselves as male or female in this year’s census will have a biological sex assigned to them on a random basis.

A spokeswoman said said that the random allocation in such cases would not have a statistical impact.