With the 2016 Australian Census results due to be released over the coming months, we thought we’d write about how you can get the most out of the new Census data using .id’s online community tools and resources. .id works with over 250 councils in Australia to develop community profile information tools that are made available to the public as community planning resources. In this blog/vlog, we will show you where you can find relevant community data and how to effectively analyse this information using our online community profile tool.
What are community profiles?
Community profiles help you tell the demographic story of places to understand the characteristics of the people who live there, how they are changing and how they compare to other areas. .id’s community profile tool (profile.id) makes Census data easy to analyse and compare. Profiling a community using Census data provides an evidence-based way of informing community planning and service delivery decisions.
Profile.id is available for over 250 Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Australia and the suburbs and small areas within each LGA. .id’s community profiles are designed to help users 1) find demographic information, 2) create a demographic story about their local area, 3) benchmark places to other areas to provide perspective 4) use time series information to see how places change over time and 5) make planning decisions using a reliable evidence base.
.id’s community profiles are commissioned by local governments as a resource to help you understand your community and the demographic characteristics of people in different places. This publically available information can be accessed via our demographic resource centre or your local council website.
What information will you find in your community profiles?
Profile.id includes a whole host of demographic information to help you understand community areas. We’ve arranged this information into browsable topics including age structure, employment, housing and ethnicity. These topics help you start telling the story of the area you are interested in by providing information to answer four major questions:
- How old are we? (age-based information)
- Who are we? (ethnicity, education, disability)
- What do we do? (employment, unpaid work, income)
- How do we live? (households, housing tenure, dwelling)
Within each page, you’ll find some headline numbers, the related census question, tables and charts showing visualisations of the dataset, as well as information about the dominant and emerging trends in your local government areas. You can learn more by watching the video overview:
For more information on using .id’s community profiles, check out our profile.id YouTube tutorials.
When the 2016 Census data is released by the ABS in late June, we will be progressively updating the profile.id sites with the new information – see our product update calendar for more information.
.id is a team of demographers, population forecasters, spatial planners, urban economists, and data experts who use a unique combination of online tools and consulting to help governments and organisations understand their local areas. Access our free demographic resources her
