Who decides which questions are on the Census?
Australia is gearing up to run the 2011 Census next month. Every 5 years Australia conducts a Census, which is a fantastic data resource, with a wealth of information for very small areas on the people that live there, their families and dwellings. At .id we put together a lot of information from Census in a very user friendly format, allowing our users to tell the demographic story of their area. As you are filling in your Census form on the 9th of August, you may wonder who decides which questions will be on it?
One of the most common questions we are asked at .id is “How do I get a question onto the Census?” or “Is <insert topic here> going to be on a future Census?” Well I’m afraid it’s not that easy – although everyone can have input into the decision process, it’s actually quite difficult to get a new question on the form.
There is already a unit of the ABS in Canberra planning for the 2016 Census. The ABS starts thinking about what is going to be on the Census form and any changes to the collection methodology about 7 years in advance.
If you want to get a question on the form (and there are lots of interesting ones our clients have suggested!) you need to be prepared and do your homework.
Usually soon after the release of the previous year’s Census, the ABS starts up the consultation process for the next one. There will be a call for submissions from organisations and the general public. After 2006, this happened in late 2007, with the consultation process due to take place through 2008.
Unfortunately this was the time when there was a change of government in Australia, and all government departments had their budgets cut. The ABS responded to this by minimising changes to the 2011 Census and keeping the form identical. So all the questions in 2011 will be the same as in 2006. Forms have to start printing about 2 years in advance, so by the time budgets were increased again in 2009, it was too late.
Hopefully that won’t happen again, so there should be a consultation process for the 2016 Census starting up in late 2012/early 2013. Anyone can put in a submission but you need to know the criteria for getting a question on there. The Census is a $300 million exercise and if the extra questions push out the number of pages on the form, it adds some millions of dollars to the total.
- The topic needs to be of national importance and applicable across Australia, for policy development, planning or monitoring.
- There is a need for the data for small groups or small geographic areas (which is where the Census excels) – otherwise it’s going to be a lot cheaper to do a national survey.
- There must be no other suitable data sources available.
- The topic must be suitable for inclusion on the Census.
The main point for number 4 is that the Census is a self-responded questionnaire. Better results are actually obtained if you go out and interview people, because the interviewer can interpret and code their answers. But for something of the magnitude of the Census it has to be mainly filled out by the householder with little or no assistance. This is the reason that questions on disability are so difficult to ask, and why the question in 2006 produced data which give fairly minimal information, with nothing about type or severity of disability.
More information on the Census assessment criteria are available on the ABS website:
So if you’ve a favourite topic which you think needs to be included, soon after the release of the 2011 data will be your time to get involved.
Some interesting topics which have been collected in the past but which no longer are:
- Duration of marriage (all up to 1986)
- Orphanhood (1921)
- Life insurance (1976)
- Holidays (1976)
- Duration of unemployment (up to 1961)
- Computer use (2001)
- Material of dwelling walls and roof (various prior to 1976)
- Access to Television (1961-1971)
- Method of sewerage disposal (1971-76)
- War service (1933)
Some common suggestions we’ve heard are:
- Pet ownership
- Health status
- Travel to education
- Multiple jobholding
We’ll be following the release of 2011 data and the consultation process for 2016, and keeping you up-to-date via this blog as well as our website. In the meantime, why not leave a comment on the blog about which topics you think should be included on the Census?
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Hi Glenn, I’m curious to know why those particular questions about disability were asked in this (2011) census. The questions focus on what people-support a person with a disability has, as opposed to umpteen other possible questions (about disability). Why was this?
thanks Glenn, regards, Nick
Nick again Glenn, just to give u some background to prev Q’n: Stella Young of the ABC’s ‘Ramp Up’ (disability site) was cross that those Q’ns didn’t ask about her, only about people-supports. I’m sure the ABS had its reasons: what were they?
chrs Nick
Hi Nick,
Thanks for the comment. I’m afraid I can’t help too much, and you may need to ask the ABS. Those questions were first asked in 2006 and have been rolled over for this Census. Disability is notoriously difficult to ask about in a self-responded questionaire, but the Howard government specifically requested that the ABS include something about disability in 2006.
Those questions about need for assistance were decided on after field testing, as giving the best indication of the level of disability in the population, based on people’s own responses. Many of the Census questions deliberately have some level of ambiguity because it’s been worked out that people will answer them in the way that most closely approximate what the ABS are trying to measure (not necessarily EXACTLY what the question is asking).
I did read Stella’s comments on this, and I think that in the spirit of the question, she would answer “Yes, sometimes” to the body movement question, but I understand that due to the exact wording of the question she felt compelled to answer “No”.
The ABS also decided that answers to the individual questions are not good enough quality to release so that the output is just “Yes, needs assistance” or “No, doesn’t need assistance”. So unfortunately the output is not all that useful anyway. The good thing about 2011 is that we will be able to see change over time, however.
Glenn
Okay thanks Glenn – but I can see her point in the sense that many people with disabilities that limit their participation in everyday activities are not captured by the questions because they manage those activities independently of people supports, if not as quickly or easily as most. I guess it also indicates that ‘disability’ is a subjective identity as much as it is an ‘objective’ set of needs for support. The data that emerge from these questions will have to be taken with a grain of salt, and it will be interesting to see how they are used in relation to the Commonwealth’s planned National Disability Insurance Scheme, cheers Nick
Absolutely I can see her point too. We have always said we think the disability estimates are an undercount. Making such a question objective and able to be includded on a self-enumerated form is very difficult. Certainly will be interesting to see how they are used.
Glenn