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 Household Use of Information Technology (HUIT) survey provides data on use and access to computers and the internet by households and people aged 15 years and over. The HUIT survey is collected biennially as part of the Multipurpose Household Survey (MPHS). Additionally, data on use and access to computers and the internet by people with a disability and people aged 60 years and over is collected as part of the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC).
TIMELINESS
The most recent HUIT survey was collected throughout Australia during the 2010–11 financial year as part of the 2010–11 MPHS and from April to December 2009 as part of the SDAC.
ACCURACY
The MPHS and SDAC were designed primarily to provide reliable estimates at the national level and for each state and territory.
The 2010–11 MPHS collected information from approximately 27,000 (after sample loss) randomly selected private dwelling households across Australia. In the survey, one randomly selected person per household was asked about their household's access to, and their own use of, computers and the internet. Approximately 21,309 households (79%) fully responded.
The 2009 SDAC used multi-stage sampling techniques to select the sample for the survey. After sample loss, the household sample included approximately 27,600 private dwellings and 200 non-private dwellings. After exclusions due to scope and coverage, the final sample comprised 64,213 persons for the household component.
Estimates in this publication are subject to sampling and non-sampling errors. Sampling error is the error associated with taking a sample of dwellings rather than going to all dwellings in Australia. In this publication the sampling error is measured by the relative standard error (RSE), the standard error expressed as a percentage of the estimate. Non-sampling errors can occur in any data collection, whether based on a sample or a full count such as a census. Sources of non-sampling error include non-response, errors in reporting by respondents or recording answers by interviewers, and errors in coding or processing of data. Every effort is made to reduce the non–sampling error by careful design and testing of questions, training interviewers, follow-up of respondents and extensive editing and quality control procedures at all stages of data processing.
Where estimates have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between the sums of the component items and totals.
COHERENCE
There are established international frameworks and reporting models for the collection of HUIT data (e.g. the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) model questionnaire of ICT access and use by households and individuals). Suggested question wording from these frameworks has been used as a starting point for HUIT questionnaire design and, where applicable, has been used in the HUIT survey.
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
Further information on the technical aspects (including item definitions) associated with the statistics from the 2010-11 Multipurpose Household Survey and 2009 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers can be found in the Explanatory Notes, Technical Note and Glossary associated with this release.
ACCESSIBILITY
Information about ABS activities in the field of ICT statistics is available free from the ABS website. Please visit the Innovation, Science and Technology Topics @ a Glance page for further information relating to ICT statistics.
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Paul Schollum on Perth (08) 9360 5933. Note that detailed data can be subject to high RSEs.
Quality Declaration 
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