ABS to publish estimates of Marriage Surveys received (Media Release)

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MEDIA RELEASE
28 September 2017
Embargo: 11:30 am (Canberra Time)
ABS to publish weekly estimate of Marriage Law Postal Surveys received

To mark the start of processing of Australian Marriage Postal Survey forms, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today announced it will provide weekly national estimates of the total number of survey forms received from eligible Australians from Tuesday 3 October to help promote awareness of the survey. 

The information will be published before 5pm each Tuesday on the Marriage Law Postal Survey website until the Survey closes on 7 November 2017. 

ABS Deputy Australian Statistician and Taskforce Lead, Jonathan Palmer, said given processing will take quite some time, official statistics including participation rates will not be available until 15 November when the survey results are released.

“The ABS recognises there is great public interest in the survey's progress. These updates may encourage participation by those who have not yet responded and will inform reasonable public expectations about the likely final level of response,” he said. 

The primary input to the weekly estimate, issued at the National level only, will be Australia Post’s assessment of the number of containers of sorted envelopes rather than counts of individual forms. ABS will then apply some adjustments based on factors like responses received through other channels and an allowance for forms that are damaged, invalid (ie barcodes removed, copied), and invalidated (ie cancelled when new forms are issued). 

“The estimation method and the anonymous return envelopes means the ABS can't provide any further detail." 

More information about this weekly update and what statistics will be published on 15 November is available on our website.