The estimated response rate from the August 10 Census for Newcastle-Hunter-Central Coast is 91.3 per cent, while the national average is 88 per cent.

Australian Bureau of Statistics chief statistician David Gruen said the rate was expected to go up as the bureau discovered homes that were unoccupied.

Unsurprisingly with much of the country in lockdown, four in five people have completed the Census online.

Dr Gruen said there were distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks on the Census website on the night, but they were able to be repelled unlike 2016 when the website had to be shut down.

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Dr Gruen said it was also expected the lockdown would have an impact on answers, such as "how did you get to work today".

"But what I think will be interesting is given there are parts of the country that weren't locked down but have lived through COVID, it will be interesting to see how much more working from home there is," he said.

"Also as a result of COVID we're seeing more people move out of the big cities. Newcastle will be a catchment area for those sort of people."

Dr Gruen said while it was "pretty late in process", it wasn't too late to take part.

"We just keep chasing people because there are big benefits of getting very high response rate simply because you get a better idea of all characteristics we're trying to measure," he said. "Things such as health services, planning and playgrounds."

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