The Dunedin City Council will call on the Government to add a third gender option in the next census, after a councillor suggested ''intersex'' be included alongside ''male'' and ''female'' in 2018.
Cr Aaron Hawkins raised the idea, and got the support of his colleagues yesterday, during a full council meeting.
The meeting was discussing a report from council staff in response to a Statistics New Zealand call for feedback from local governments on proposed changes to the 2018 census.
The report proposed changes including the inclusion of highest secondary school qualification, post-school qualification and study participation to monitor educational achievement.
Cr Hawkins moved the council suggest the census include an option for ''intersex'', and Cr David Benson-Pope seconded the motion.
Cr Hawkins said the option could be used by those who were were born neither fully male nor female, or people transitioning from one sex to the other, when answering the census question on gender.
The issue was raised by Statistics New Zealand in its discussions on the next census.
At the moment, those people had no box to tick on the census that applied to them, Cr Hawkins said.
During debate, Cr Richard Thomson said he was sympathetic to the idea, but wondered whether the information gathered would have a use, or whether, like information on people's religion, it was more a matter of interest.
Mayor Dave Cull said the information could have a use in terms of education and health.
Cr Kate Wilson said it was important to give people the chance to respond to census questions with what they felt was the truth about themselves.
The motion was carried, with Cr Hilary Calvert voting against.
Cr Calvert's earlier motion the census should include information on people's multiple ethnicities, rather than information on just one, lapsed for lack of a seconder.
