By - glenn the census expert
Second release Census data is out!
Census data in Australia usually comes in two parts – first release, the “easy” questions to process comes out about 10 months after Census date (in this case in June 2012), while second release is a few months later. On October 30th,...
The man drought - is it real?
Demographic commentator Bernard Salt is credited with coining the phrase “Man drought”, to refer to the phenomenon of there being more females than males in particular age groups. The main age he refers to as a...
Australian 2011 Census - Expanding household size | .id blog
Household size (that is, the average number of people counted in the Census in private dwellings in Australia) has been declining for the last 100 years. In 1911, the average household size for Australia was...
Census 2011 - The geographic distribution of religion
In my final blog on religion in the Census, I will focus on how particular religious affiliations are distributed around Australia. Religion is strongly associated with cultural background, and the breakdown of...
2011 Australian Census – fastest growing religions
As well as people’s beliefs and affiliations, religions are also a measure of the cultural diversity in the nation. The fastest growing religious groups represent communities which have had a lot of migration...
2011 Australian Census – Christian religions
Though Christianity as a whole declined as a proportion of the population in 2011 (from 63.9% in 2006 to 61.1% in 2011), there were substantial differences between Christian groups. In general, the large...
Population revision – where have all the people gone?
On July 31st, the ABS released the first 2011-Census based population estimates for Local Government Areas and smaller areas. These are based on the 2011Census results which are adjusted for the under count and...
2011 Census – Where are the most multicultural communities?
In an earlier article, I looked at the rise of India, Nepal and Malaysian communities, with falls in older European migration, and spectacular increases in some of the smaller sources of immigrants, like Bhutan...
2011 Australian Census – How have our religions changed?
The old adage, not to discuss sex, politics or religion at a dinner party can be sound advice for avoiding arguments. While nothing about politics is collected in the Census, and sex is limited to “male” and...
Pitfalls in presenting Census data
With the array of data visualisation tools available these days, it may seem pretty easy to present Census data for small areas and draw conclusions from it. Since the release of data on June 21st, quite a few...
Latest population figures – Australia’s Capital Cities
On July 31st, 2012, the ABS quietly released the official population estimates (Estimated Resident Population, or ERP) for small areas in Australia. These are the first official population figures available for...
Census to move entirely online in 2016? We doubt it!
A few days before Census release, the Canberra Times had an article about possible changes for the next Census in 2016, from an interview with the Australian Statistician, Brian Pink. It contained some...
2011 Census – Australia’s changing multicultural mix
Every Census, one of the topics that gathers the most interest is the changing mix of origins of Australia’s residents. Country of Birth is the easiest way to measure this. Australia is a multicultural society,...
Census Australia 2011 – A quality result?
Well the Census Australia 2011 results are out now, and we will be blogging about our discoveries over the coming weeks, months and years. We’re working away now to get the 2011-based community profile and...
Census 2011 crystal ball gazing - so how did I do?
Well the Census results are out, so it’s finally time to check my 11 predictions made before the release of the results and see how well I did. Did I pick the trend right? How close did I get to the actual...
Population confusion after 2011 Census release!
With the Census results released yesterday, lots of people, organisations and governments are looking up their local area’s population using the Quickstats feature on the ABS website. The headline number on...
Launch of the 2011 Australian Census data!
I was fortunate enough to to attend the launch of the 2011 Census at the Data Processing Centre in Melbourne today. Only about 50 people were invited to hear the results announcement.
Australian Census 2011 predictions – Crystal Ball gazing revisited
The Australian Census 2011 results are imminent, so I thought it would be worth revisiting some of the predictions I made for the Census results, around the time the Census was actually being collected. I...
The population of the Gold Coast - a story of spectacular growth
Until the 1960s, the Gold Coast was just a string of sleepy coastal villages. The Gold Coast population explosion that has occurred since that time is one of the amazing stories in Australian demographics, as...
Is Perth the most remote city in the world?
When preparing my last blog “Perth’s population – a story of economic boom”, I initially made a statement which I’ve long believed, though I forgot where I heard it. That is the “fact” that Perth is the most...
Population of Brisbane – a story of coastal migration
Brisbane is Australia’s third-largest city, and is at the centre of a massive population boom in recent years occurring in the south-eastern corner of the Sunshine State. However, Queensland is unusual among...
