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Australian Social Trends Seminar (AST)

Australian Social Trends 2003 is the 10th edition of an annual series, first published in 1994, presenting information on contemporary social issues and areas of public and policy concern.The publication draws on a wide range of ABS statistics and statistics from other official sources in describing aspects of Australian society and how these are changing over time. It is designed to be of wide use, particularly for those engaged in research, marketing and journalism.

Each edition of Australian Social Trends contains around 30 articles, organised into seven areas of social concern: population; family and community; health; education and training; work; economic resources; and housing.

For each area of concern there are updated summary tables covering a ten year period at the national level, and a state by state comparison of statistics.

ABS, WA hosted a seminar in November 2003 which focussed on the key trends and issues in Australian society with examples from recent editions of Australian Social Trends. While the publication has a strong national focus, the seminar highlighted trends in Western Australia where possible, and covered some very topical areas such as changing families, home ownership, education and health.

The seminar was presented by Christine Mason and Lisa Fenn from the Social Analysis and Reporting section in our Central Office.