Have your say: 2016 Australian Census update to .id community tools

With the bulk of the 2016 Australian Census data due to be released by the ABS later in June, we are busy preparing to make the flow-on updates to our community profile tool as smooth as possible and give you access to the new Census information as quickly as possible.

Behind the scenes, we are already working to get all our web tools ready to incorporate the new 2016 Census data. In particular, we are focusing on transforming the ABS statistical areas into easy to use, local geographic areas that make sense for planning. We are doing as much work as we can in advance so that when we receive the data from the ABS, we can quickly make it compatible for use in our online tools.

So that you know what to expect following the ABS release of data, we thought it would be a good idea to provide a bit more detail about how we will be updating our community profiles. We are also giving our clients and users the chance to vote on the order in which we release information ready to use for small areas.

Updates to .id’s community profile and social atlas tools

1. LGA level updates (within 2 weeks of Census data release)

Once we have the new Census data from the ABS, we can go about updating our profile.id and atlas.id tools to provide you with access to the new information. We are committed to making the update of profile.id and atlas.id sites a priority so that you can use the new information as quickly as possible.

We are streamlining the process so that all going well, we can deliver 2016 Census information at LGA level for all our community profiles in Australia within two weeks of the ABS releasing the new data to us. We plan to update atlas.id in the same way we update profile.id so that topics easily align between community profiles and the social atlas.

To help you know which information is updated with the new Census data, updated topics will be clearly marked with green icons and shading, and the comparison year will switch over to display data for 2016 with 2011 as the comparison year. A sample page is shown below. Topics that aren’t updated yet will remain as 2011 Census information comparing to 2006.

2. Small area level updates (within 6 weeks of Census data release)

Following the LGA level updates, we will start rolling out the new 2016 Census information topic-by-topic at a small area level. The bulk of our effort goes into aligning to the ABS statistical data to usable geographic boundaries (small areas) that allow you to compare data over time and in comparison to other benchmark areas. Much of this work is being done prior to the Census release, but final checks need to be done against actual dwelling numbers which only arrive with the first release. We anticipate having profile.id updated ready for use at a small area level by around August 10th, 6 weeks following the ABS data release.

As we will be rolling out the Census information for small areas topic-by-topic, some topics will be available at small area level much sooner than this, and we thought we would give our clients and users the chance to vote on the topics to prioritise in the rollout.

Vote for the order we update topics at small area level

Here are the first twelve Census topics we are planning to release, which we consider essential to telling the demographic story of an area.

1. Age structure (3 topics – 5 year age groups, service age groups and age-sex pyramid)
2. Household Type Summary
3. Dwelling Structure/Type
4. Population summary/estimates (including UR/Enum/ERP, indigenous, citizenship)
5. Household Type detail with and without children (older/younger etc)
6. Household Income
7. Household Income Quartiles
8. Tenure Type
9. Birthplace
10. Language
11. Religion
12. Ancestry

Have your say in the order we prioritise these topics for release:

We’ll let you know which topics everyone has prioritised for release at small area level in June so you know what to expect ahead of time.

ABS 2016 Census data release schedule

You can read our previous blog about the ABS release schedule but here is a quick recap of the release timings from the ABS.

ABS “typical Australian” release – 11 April 2017

The ABS released a small amount of information in April, focussing on the characteristics of a ‘typical’ Australian but these have very little detail and leave more questions unanswered. The information shows the typical Australian has changed very little since 2011 and unfortunately, the format is not a good way to showcase Census data. You can read about the typical Aussie on the ABS website.

ABS first data release – 27 June 2017

The key date for the information we need is June 27th when the ABS release detailed Census data. This is when all the small area data for about 75% of Census topics becomes available, and there will be a big media release by ABS on that day. As .id (and our Local Government clients) are among the largest users of ABS Census data, we have already placed our order with the ABS for the 2016 Census data, which we should receive on the 27th June.

ABS second data release – 17 October 2017

The second release of 2016 Census data will be on October 17th, after which we will roll out the employment related, educational qualifications and population mobility topics. We will also update the Census data in economy.id at that time. More information on that one closer to the date.

.id is a team of population experts who combine online tools and consulting services to help local governments and organisations decide where and when to locate their facilities and services, to meet the needs of changing populations. Access our free demographic resources and tools here.