ABOUT THIS RELEASE
This publication is part of the Demography Working Paper series.
This paper describes changes to the method that was applied in 1996 and describe the planned output from the 2001 Census rebasing cycle. The completion of the 2001 Census of Population and Housing allows estimation of Australia's resident population using this new source. These estimates (for 30 June of the census year) can be compared with the alternative estimates already produced by updating the previous census date estimate (using births, deaths and migration data). The difference between these two estimates is called the "intercensal error". Of these two estimates, the first is customarily adopted as the true estimate - that is, the true estimate at the census year is the one based on that year's census, not the one carried forward from the previous census. To overcome the break in continuity that this would entail, all population estimates updated from the previous census are then revised. This entire exercise (estimates at 30 June of census year and quarterly estimates back to September of previous census) is known as "rebasing", as the population estimates are determined from a new base - the most recent census. Rebasing is applied to estimates of Australia's population, that of each of the states (which here include the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory), and that of each Statistical Local Area (SLA).
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