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Demographic insights, tips and news from the experts

By - glenn the census expert

Demographic profiles for small towns in regional areas

Glenn introduces Locality Snapshots – a new feature in our community profiles to give you localised demographic data for small towns that are usually bundled in with larger regional centres.

A demographic profile of the South Sudanese population

We received a question this week about how we display country-of-birth data for people from newly formed nations, such as South Sudan, and those that no longer exist, such as the former Yugoslavia. Glenn...

Australia's population growth slows (a little)

Glenn’s analysis of the latest population figures reveals interesting trends for the nation, as well as for Victoria, Tasmania, the NT and ACT, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. Ok..everywhere...

The millennial “baby blip” is now over

Whenever we’re talking about the big-picture demographic story in Australia, the graph below showing a millennial ‘baby blip’ will usually make an appearance. Now, Glenn writes, we can say the baby blip is...

Australia to hit 30 million by 2029…or maybe 2033

Glenn unpacks the most recent population projections from the ABS, explaining how projections are different to forecasts, and why there is a role for both in planning.

ABS to remove ‘number of cars’ from 2021 Census (and other topic changes)

The ABS will be removing the ‘number of motor vehicles’ topic from the 2021 Census, along with a number of other changes that will be significant to people in the local government sector, including some...

How to avoid an overcount of 8,708 jobs

Most Local Government Areas show an increase in jobs simply because the ‘not stated’ employment locations have now been allocated to a place. Many of our users of economy.id are looking at how the number of...

Measuring disengagement in your community

In this blog, Glenn introduces our new Disengagement dataset, now available in all community profiles, to show which age-groups in your community are not currently ‘earning or learning’.

How same-sex couples are captured in the Census

The 2017 Marriage Law Postal Survey paved the way for the historic law allowing same-sex couples to marry in Australia.

Are there enough local jobs for your residents?

Of the people who live in your area, how many work locally? As planners work toward 30-minute cities, new data (exclusive to economy.id) shows where longer daily commutes are on the rise. Glenn explains the...

Rebecca’s question: Who is living in all these new apartments?

Rebecca works in community services delivering adult education and other programs. She wondered if the proliferation of apartments in her area has impacted the mix of local families and how they live and work.

Crystal ball gazing – predictions for the 2018 New Zealand Census results

Last week Penny and I attended the SOLGM conference ( New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers), where I presented my 12 predictions for the results we expect to see after the New Zealand Census data...

Australia’s population hits 25 million people

You may have heard the news that Australia’s population will pass 25 million people on August 8th.

Common mistakes in demographic analysis

We often write blogs that give context to data, so you can clearly understand how its collection, coding and manipulation impacts your analysis and the conclusion of your research. In this piece, Glenn...

What are the characteristics of low-income households in your area?

In this blog, Glenn demonstrates how to use the Low-income households module in our community profiles to get a clear picture of people on lower incomes in your community, and how that information can be used...

Your top requests: questions for the 2021 Census

Do you use data on disability, volunteering, travel-to-work/education, long-term health conditions, domestic work or car ownership?

Population growth concerns – New York in Melbourne?

The Age has published an article yesterday citing social research data from Ipsos indicating population growth/overpopulation is much more of a concern in Melbourne than it was just 4 years ago.

Census 2021 consultation – call for topic suggestions

Is the Census missing something? If you follow our blog, it’s likely you read and enjoy the fruits of the Census. But do you think the Census is missing something? Is there a part of our community that’s being...

The 50 largest cities and towns in Australia, by population | 2018 update

This is the annual update to Glenn’s incredibly popular Top 50 cities in Australia blog. Updated population data is released every year by the ABS. Of course, everyone loves a ranking, and here you can see the...

Australia’s fastest and slowest growing areas in 2017

The ABS has released the 2017 population estimates for Local Government and other smaller geographic areas. These are current for June 30th, 2017, and represent the first population update after the 2016...

A localised picture of disadvantage: SEIFA rankings for SA2s

In this blog, Glenn looks at how local areas (SA2 geography) rank on the recently-released SEIFA index for advantage and disadvantage.

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