>> Sadly you need the paper version to arrive prior to going online as your census number is needed <<
Apart from the cost of the paper version, why not? Without some form of ID the census would be useless. They can't get it right with the paper version. Mayb electronically it may be nearer the mark.
They could have had a registration system to allow you to complete without all the paper stuff arriving.
Looking at the questions it is designed by an idiot and the questions are in a very stupid order, I can forsee problems already as it is impossible to answer questions about the addresses lived at correctly.
My son is away from home as a weekly boarder so needs a "both" button for his addresses, they only allow you a here or there option which means the answers are going to be untrue/inaccurate.
Personally I would prefer to tell them to get stuffed, they already have all this info anyway and do not act on it so why go through all this again?