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SOCIAL CONDITIONS STATISTICS

OBJECTIVES

The Social Conditions Program provides statistical leadership, standards development and information for a broad picture of the economic and social wellbeing of the Australian population. It provides statistics covering a range of topics including income, expenditure, wealth, housing, superannuation, families, time use, volunteering, homelessness and social capital.

The program provides design, development, data collection and processing services to support the Growing up in Australia Study (Longitudinal Study of Australian Children), in partnership with the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

The program’s statistics are used to support policy development, program delivery and program evaluation of key government agencies involved in social security, taxation, housing, homelessness, community and family services, and issues related to older people, children, youth, men and women.


OUTPUTS

The program produces a range of outputs including: frameworks and standards; information development plans; statistical products; information/ technical papers; guides and analytical articles.

The main outputs of the program are:

• from the Survey of Income and Housing, and the Household Expenditure Survey: Household Income and Income Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6523.0); Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results (ABS cat. no. 6530.0); Household Wealth and Wealth Distribution, Australia (ABS cat. no. 6554.0); Housing Occupancy and Costs, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4130.0); Housing Mobility and Conditions, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4130.0.55.002); and Government Benefits, Taxes and Household Income (ABS cat. no. 6537.0)
• from the General Social Survey: a profile of the socio-economic characteristics of Australia’s adult population with data on a range of social dimensions of the community, published in General Social Survey: Summary Results, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4159.0); and Voluntary Work, Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4441.0)
• from the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers: Caring in the Community, Australia, 2009 (cat. no. 4436.0)
• the six monthly Gender Indicators, Australia (cat. no. 4125.0)
• from monthly population survey components: Family Characteristics and Transitions, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4442.0), and Pregnancy and Employment Transitions, Australia (ABS cat. no. 4913.0)
• from the Census of Population and Housing: Estimating Homelessness, 2011 (cat. no. 2049.0)
• publication of the OECD Guidelines for Micro Statistics on Household Wealth and the OECD Guidelines for Statistics on the Distribution of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth, led by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, being published in 2013
• publication of UNECE Guidelines for Harmonising Time Use Surveys, led by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, to be published in 2013; and
• annual information on registered marriages and divorces granted in Marriages and Divorces, Australia (ABS cat. no. 3310.0).

• publish an Information Paper on Perspectives on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Homelessness to complement the statistical definition work published by the ABS in the Information Paper: A Statistical Definition of Homelessness (ABS cat. no. 4922.0) – due November 2013
• develop new standards for use in the 2016 Census of Population and Housing for families, income and housing – due mid 2014
• develop, and publish results from: the 2012 Personal Safety Survey (due end 2013); 2012 Household Energy Consumption Survey (due September 2013); the 2011–12 and 2013-14 cycles of Survey of Income and Housing (due mid 2013 and April 2015 respectively); the 2012 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, Caring in the Community results (due end 2013); the 2014 General Social Survey (due April 2015); and develop the 2015–16 Household Income and Expenditure Surveys.