Australian Social Trends 2009 March Quarter - National Media Alert, 2009

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March 18, 2009

15/2009

ATTENTION: Chiefs of Staff and News Editors
Australian Social Trends - out in one week!

A premier publication of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) - Australian Social Trends - will be available on the ABS website at <www.abs.gov.au> in one week's time on Wednesday 25 March 2009.

Australian Social Trends is a quarterly analysis of Australian society which provides a rich source of story material for both news and feature writers.

An ABS spokesperson will be available for interviews at the Press Gallery, Canberra on release day (25 March) from 11.30 am. To ensure an interview time, please call to pre-book by calling Ilona Fraser (02) 6252 7480 or Richard Lynch (02) 6252 6139.

Articles available in the March quarter issue of this publication include:

  • Future trends in Australia's population: looks at the projected size of the population over the next 50 to 100 years, the changing age structure and the pace of population ageing in this time, and the effect that factors like migration and fertility can have on the population.
  • Couples in Australia: discusses partnering in Australia by various characteristics (e.g. age, religion, whether people are married or in a de facto relationship). It also describes the characteristics of people who don't have partners, whether people in de facto relationships plan to marry, and whether couples plan to have children.
  • Mental health: focuses on people who had a mental illness in 2007. It looks at the different types of mental disorder, how common they are and what use people are making of mental health services.
  • Trends in household work: looks at whether people are doing more or less household work (cooking, cleaning etc) than in the past and how this work is divided between men and women.
  • Retirement and retirement intentions: discusses why people have retired (or intend to retire), sources of income after retirement, the plans people have for retirement (e.g. what age they plan to retire) and whether people plan to wind down to retirement (e.g. switch to part-time work before retiring).
  • Household debt: examines levels of debt, types of debt and who owes money.
  • Trends in superannuation coverage: looks at trends in sources of income in retirement, how superannuation coverage has changed over time and which groups of people have the highest levels of coverage.
  • Are households using renewable energy?: highlights the trends in household energy use, the types of energy used, the production of renewable energy, and the uptake of GreenPower.

When reporting on ABS data, please attribute either the Australian Bureau of Statistics or ABS as the source.