The coalition government has already secured its legacy in a torrent of cuts to public services. But it hopes to do more. It also wants to do away with the largest evidence base that is available to inform…
If you follow the debate on “population ageing” you could be forgiven for thinking that it is a bad thing; growing numbers of older people mean greying societies, struggling to maintain pensions, welfare…
This week the Office for National Statistics opened a consultation on the future of the decennial national census. Two options are on the table: continuing the census, but with a switch to online collection…
Australia’s population reaches 23 million today according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) online population clock. How do they know it’s today? They don’t really. The clock provides an estimate…
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released a new round of data based on the 2011 census. One part of this latest release that has caught the eye of the media is the 2011 Socio-Economic…
The Australia Institute (TAI) has recently used Census data to claim that the Tasmanian forest industry employs only 975 workers. Based on this, they argued that the size of the political debate about…
Indigenous communities are devastated when languages are lost. This was the conclusion of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs last month. The…
AUSTRALIA BY NUMBERS: Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the first batch of its 2011 census data. We’ve asked some of the country’s top demographers and statisticians to crunch the numbers…
AUSTRALIA BY NUMBERS: Today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics will release the first batch of its 2011 census data. We’ve asked some of the country’s top demographers and statisticians to crunch the…
The Australian Health Survey (AHS) has recently been in the news, with people expressing concern that a national health census is an egregious infringement of their right to privacy and a manifestation…
The Census is useful and important. Governments and policy makers remain dependent upon the information it provides to govern responsibly. Beyond being a simple count of people and assets, contemporary…