QUALITY DECLARATION - SUMMARY
INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT
For information on the institutional environment of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), including the legislative obligations of the ABS, financing and governance arrangements, and mechanisms for scrutiny of ABS operations, please see ABS Institutional Environment.
RELEVANCE
The Multipurpose Household Survey (MPHS) is collected as a supplement to the monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS) and is designed to collect statistics on a number of small self-contained topics. The Household Use of Information Technology (HUIT) topic collects a range of information on household access to and persons use of the internet in Australia. These data are presented by various demographic and geographic characteristics.
TIMELINESS
The MPHS is collected annually with enumeration undertaken in each month over the financial year period from July to June. Generally, data from the MPHS are released approximately 6–8 months after enumeration. The HUIT topic is collected biennially via the MPHS. HUIT is expected to be next collected in the 2016–17 MPHS.
ACCURACY
The HUIT topic comprised a sample of 13,686 fully responding households, which represented a response rate of 73% (after taking sample loss into account). The LFS, and consequently the MPHS, is primarily designed to provide estimates for the whole of Australia and, secondly, for each state and territory.
Estimates are subject to sampling and non-sampling error. All aggregate statistics presented in tables have been randomly adjusted to avoid the release of any data that may inadvertently identify an individual. The technique to adjust the data is called perturbation. These adjustments have a negligible impact on the underlying pattern of the data. For further information, please refer to the Explanatory Notes.
COHERENCE
The HUIT topic has been collected through the MPHS in 2004-05, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08, 2008-09, 2010-11 and 2012-13. Person level data from 2005-06 MPHS onwards (the scope of which is 15 years and over) are not directly comparable with data from previous years, which was limited to persons aged 18 years and over. Data on internet users (persons aged 15 years and over who accessed the internet for personal use in a typical week) from 2014-15 HUIT onwards are not directly comparable with data from previous years due to changes in the definition of an internet user, question structure and response categories. Household level data are comparable.
While the ABS seeks to maximise consistency and comparability over time by minimising changes to the survey, ongoing survey review has adjusted to the changing needs of users of information and communication technology statistics.
INTERPRETABILITY
To aid in the interpretation of HUIT data, detailed information on the terminology, classifications and other technical aspects associated with the survey can be found on the relevant web pages included with this release.
ACCESSIBILITY
All tables and associated RSEs are available in Excel spreadsheets and can be accessed from the Downloads tab. Please see the Past & Future Releases tab for earlier editions of the survey, and the Related Information tab and the ABS website for other releases in the field of ICT statistics.
Additional tables can also be produced on request. Note that detailed data can be subject to high RSEs and, in some cases, may result in data being confidentialised or not being available.
For further information about these or related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service.
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