MEDIA RELEASE
18 December 2013	Embargo: 11:30 am (Canberra Time)	229/2013

The first Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset (ACLD), Australians' Journeys Through Life, was released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today. The ACLD, Australia’s largest longitudinal social dataset, is based on a sample of about 1 million records from the 2006 Census which has been combined with records from the 2011 Census.

The ACLD was created by bringing together common characteristics of people from both Censuses, such as age, sex, geographic region and country of birth, without using names and addresses. Additional waves will be added to the ACLD following future Censuses.

The Australian Statistician, Mr Brian Pink, said the release of the ACLD is a significant milestone for statistics in Australia.

"It's the culmination of more than ten years work and public consultation, and will give researchers and policy makers access to an unprecedented data source about Australia's population. An Australian dataset of this depth and breadth has never been available before."

"The ACLD provides new insights into the dynamics that drive social and economic change. Longitudinal datasets, like the ACLD, allow community and governments to better evaluate the effects of social and economic policy decisions over time.

"For example, this dataset shows that almost half of Year 11 or 12 students in 2006 had moved into work (and were not undertaking higher study) in 2011, and almost a third were combining work with higher studies," said Mr Pink.

The ACLD also shows:

• health care and social assistance and education and training industries had the highest staff retention rates at 63 per cent across both years
• of all people who provided care in either 2006 or 2011, only 20 per cent provided care in both years
• of all people who volunteered in either 2006 or 2011, one third did so in both years, and
• of recent migrants who had difficulty with spoken English in 2006, over half spoke English well or very well in 2011.

An article demonstrating the analysis that can be undertaken with the ACLD is now available in Australians' Journeys Through Life: Stories from the Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset (ABS cat. no. 2081.0).

The ACLD is available now, in TableBuilder format in Microdata: Australian Census Longitudinal Dataset (ABS cat. no. 2080.0), from the ABS website.

Notes:

• When reporting ABS data you must attribute the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) as the source
• Higher study refers to study at Technical or Further Educational Institutions, TAFE Colleges, Universities or other Tertiary Institutions
• Care refers to provision of unpaid assistance to a person with a disability, long-term health condition or problems relating to old age.