The tabs across the top of this page provide information about the MAP dashboard, how to navigate MAP and its structure, its graphs, and how to find further information.

The MAP Dashboard

To assist readers in gaining a quick 'at a glance' view of recent progress in Australia, Measures of Australia's Progress (MAP) presents a 'traffic light' dashboard of headline progress indicators on the MAP home page. The dashboard is arranged into four broad areas of life - society, economy, environment and governance. Each of these areas is made up of themes, which collectively summarise the aspirations that Australians told us were important for progress in these four areas; for example, health (society), opportunities (economy), a healthy environment (environment), and trust (governance).

Progress for each theme is shown by a green tick (for progress), a red cross (for regress), or an orange line (for little or no change). Progress is calculated by comparing two points in time; the most recent point where data is available, and an earlier period (which is dependent upon how much data is available). The blue question marks show where there is no current measure and highlights where we may be able to show indicators in the future.

More information about the headline indicators or measures 'behind' the dashboard symbols is found by simply clicking on the themes. For example, clicking on health will take you to the life expectancy headline indicator, which we use to measure the overall progress of Australia's health. The dashboard format allows you to quickly view all domains of progress at once so you can more readily assess, on balance, whether life in Australia is getting better.

The MAP dashboard is an interactive gateway to a rich picture of progress within Australia. Click on the tabs on each theme page and you will find progress indicators for more areas that Australians told us are important for progress. For example, the tabs on the health page will provide indicators for such areas as physical health, mental health and healthy lifestyles.

While MAP provides a picture of broad national progress, there is also some information available at state level, and by age and gender. Links are provided to further information, including data sources, and detailed tables are available under the downloads heading so you can explore further.

An alternative dashboard view is also provided on the '...by status' tab, to allow the MAP themes to be grouped by their progress status - for example, all the ticks grouped together.

MAP dashboard - what do the symbols mean?

The full explanation of the symbols is as follows:

The headline progress indicator for this theme has shown progress.
When comparing current data to earliest data included, the change is in a direction which clearly signals progress and, where applicable, that change is statistically significant.

The headline progress indicator for this theme has shown regress.
When comparing current data to earliest data included, the change is in a direction which clearly signals regress and, where applicable, that change is statistically significant.

The headline progress indicator for this theme has not changed greatly.
When comparing current data to earliest data included, there is no meaningful movement or the movements observed in any direction are not statistically significant.

There is a data gap for this theme as there is currently no headline progress indicator.

The traffic light format is a visual tool to help you quickly assess whether life in Australia is getting better. To support this, we ensure that the movement shown is an actual movement and is not the result of 'statistical noise'. As is standard procedure, where appropriate, the ABS has undertaken significance testing to determine whether the movements are statistically significant. Statistical significance means a movement or comparison is not likely to have happened just by chance.