ABS House which is the headquarters for the Australian Bureau of Statistics

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 (xi) of the Constitution of Australia. The newly formed Federation recognised that statistics were going to be important for the Commonwealth government.

Population and housing[link]

The agency undertakes the Australian Census of Population and Housing. The Census is conducted every five years under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905, Section 8.^[1] The last Australian population census was held on 9 August 2011. Results from the 2006 Census are available on the ABS web site.^[2]

Research and development[link]

The ABS has been undertaking surveys to collect estimates from Australian organisations of R&D expenditure and human resources devoted to R&D in Australia since 1978.^[3] The results allow the nature and distribution of Australia's R&D activity to be monitored by government policy analysts and advisers to government, businesses and economists.

There are four Research & Development surveys:^[3]

• R&D Business survey, conducted annually^[4]
• R&D Higher Education survey, conducted biennially by the ABS since 1994; in 1990 and 1992 it was collected by Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs^[5]
• R&D General Government survey, conducted biennially^[6]
• R&D Private Non-profit Sector survey, conducted biennially^[7]

Research[link]

The ABS survey reports research against the Australian Standard Research Classification (ASRC). The first ASRC was released in 1993 ^[8] and was in use until 1998. It comprised three classification schemes; Type of Activity (TOA), Field of Research (FOR) and Socio-Economic Objective (SEO). In 1998, a second ASRC was released ^[9] with a revised Socio-Economic Objective classification that used a different numbering range, and a Research Field, Course and Discipline (RFCD) classification to replace FORs. This revised classification came into effect in the 2000 collection period, which was due on 31 August 2001.^[10] For the 2008 collection, RFCDs were replaced by Field of Research (FOR) codes.^[11]

Other ABS surveys[link]

The ABS also undertakes many other surveys, including household and business surveys. Some of the main statistics produced are published as "Key National Indicators",^[12] which comprise:

• National Accounts (includes Gross Domestic Product)
• Internation Accounts
• Consumption and Investment
• Production
• Prices (includes Consumer Price Index)
• Labour Force and Demography
• Incomes
• Housing Finance

These statistics are compiled from surveys including:

• Retail (monthly/quarterly)^[13]
• Labour Force (monthly)^[14]
• Building Approvals (monthly/quarterly)^[15]
• Survey of New Capital Expenditure (quarterly)^[16]
• Quarterly Business Indicator Survey (quarterly)
• Local Government Finance Statistics (quarterly)
• Economic Activity Survey (annual)

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey[link]

The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) collects information on the social situation of Indigenous Australians (who are either Aboriginal Australians or Torres Strait Islanders), including on health, education, culture and labour force participation. The survey started in 2002 and is carried out every six years.^[17]

[edit] Year Book Australia

The ABS produces an annual year book for Australia, called the Year Book Australia, which is the principal reference work produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It provides a comprehensive and detailed statistical overview of various aspects of the economy and social conditions in Australia.

In addition, it contains descriptive matter dealing with Australia’s geography and climate, government, international relations, defence, education, and the health and welfare support systems.

In April 2008, the ABS announced the cancellation of the 2009 Year Book due to budgetary constraints.^[18]

Australian Statistician[link]

Since 1975, the head of the ABS has been known as the Australian Statistician. Previously, the office was titled the Commonwealth Statistician.

The incumbent (since March 2007) is Brian Pink.^[19]

Australian CensusAtSchool project[link]

The Australian CensusAtSchool is based on a program developed by the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) Centre for Statistical Education in the United Kingdom.^[20] The UK project has been extremely successful in improving statistical literacy and was successfully extended to all provinces in South Africa. Since then, other organisations have adapted the project to suit their local environment, namely Canada, New Zealand, the Office of Economic and Statistical Research (OESR) in Queensland and the Noel Baker Centre for School Mathematics in South Australia. After the success of the OESR and Noel Baker initiatives, agreement was gained from both the South Australian and Queensland projects for the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) to take the national lead in this project.

The project was introduced to schools in 2005 by the ABS with two key objectives:

• the development of statistical literacy among students in years 5 - 12 across Australia
• to promote the 2006 Census of Population and Housing

CenusAtSchool is a non-compulsory education project that aims to improve statistical literacy through analysis of real data, and assist them in making sensible, informed decisions. It is a free internet-based data collection and analysis project designed for students in years 5 to 12. Students respond to questions of interest about themselves by completing the CensusAtSchool online questionnaire.^[21] The questionnaire response data is then released back to teachers and students providing real, raw, relevant data for use with supporting activities across curriculum in all states and territories. Students can generate random samples of response data from an Australia-wide database via the Random Sampler facility.^[22] This statistical tool allows students to extract a wealth of up-to-date information about sleeping and eating habits, student lifestyles, favourite music and sport activity, attitudes to topical social and environmental issues, technology and much more.

See also[link]

• Census in Australia
• Demographics of Australia
• ANZSIC - Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification - an industry classification developed jointly with Statistics New Zealand

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Year Book Australia, 2006
• "Measuring Australia's Progress"
• 22 October 2003 Bulletin article on Dennis Trewin
• SMART 100: Get smart from The Bulletin
• CensusAtSchool - Australia from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• The Australian Statistical System: Evolution and Challenges, a paper contributed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics to the thirty-eighth session of the Statistical Commission of the United Nations, New York, 27 February to 2 March 2007 [6].

v t e National statistics agencies Bureau of Statistics · Statistics Canada · National Bureau of Statistics · Central Statistical Organisation · Federal Bureau of Statistics · Statistics Authority (Office for National Statistics) ·  Economics and Statistics Administration List of national and international statistical services

National statistical services[link]

Country	Organisation	Website
Afghanistan	Central Statistics Office	cso.gov.af
Albania	Institute of Statistics	instat.gov.al
Algeria	Office National de Statistiques	ons.dz
Angola	Instituto Nacional de Estatistica (Angola)	ine-ao.com
Anguilla	Statistics Unit	gov.ai
Argentina	Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (INDEC)	indec.gov.ar
Armenia	National Statistical Service of the Republic of Armenia	armstat.am
Australia	Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)	abs.gov.au
Austria	Statistics Austria	statistik.at
Azerbaijan	State Statistical Committee of the Azerbaijan Republic	azstat.org
Bahamas	Financial Services Board	bfsb-bahamas.com
Bahrain	Bahrain Monetary Agency	cbb.gov.bh
Bangladesh	Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics	bbs.gov.bd
Barbados	Barbados Statistical Service	barstats.gov.bb
Belarus	National Statistical Committee of the Republic of Belarus	belstat.gov.by
Belize	Belize Central Statistical Office	cso.gov.bz
Benin	Institut national de la statistique et de l'analyse économique French (INSAE)	insae-bj.org
Bhutan	Department of Planning	www.nsb.gov.bt
Bolivia	Instituto Nacional de Estadística	ine.gov.bo
Bosnia	Statistical Institute of Republika Srpska	rzs.rs.ba
Botswana	Central Statistics Office of Botswana	cso.gov.bw
Brazil	Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE)	ibge.gov.br
Belgium	Statistics Belgium	statbel.fgov.be
Bulgaria	National Statistical Institute of Bulgaria	nsi.bg
Burkina Faso	Institut national de la statistique et de la démographie French (INSD)	insd.bf
Burma	Central Statistical Organization (Burma)	www.csostat.gov.mm
Burundi	Institut de la Statistique et des Études Économiques du Burundi (ISEEBU)	isteebu.bi
Cameroon	Institut national de la statistique French (INS)	statistics-cameroon.org
Cambodia	National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia	nis.gov.kh
Canada	Statistics Canada	statcan.ca
Central African Republic	Institut centrafricain des statistiques, des études économiques et sociales (ICASEES)	stat-centrafrique.com
Cape Verde	Instituto Nacional de Estatistica (Cape Verde)	ine.cv
Chad	Institut national de la statistique, des études économiques et démographiques French (INSEED)	inseed-tchad.org
Chile	Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas	ine.cl
China	National Bureau of Statistics of China	stats.gov.cn
Colombia	National Administrative Department of Statistics (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadistica) (DANE)-	dane.gov.co
Comoros	Direction de la Statistique	no website
Costa Rica	Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos	www.inec.go.cr
Côte d'Ivoire	Institut national de la statistique French (INS)	www.ins.ci
Croatia	Central Bureau of Statistics	dzs.hr
Cyprus	Statistical Service of the Republic of Cyprus	www.mof.gov.cy
Czech Republic	Czech Statistical Office	czso.cz
Congo	Centre national de la statistique et des études économiques French (CNSEE)	cnsee.org
Denmark	Statistics Denmark	dst.dk
Djibouti	Direction des statistiques et des études démographiques (DISED)	ministere-finances.dj
Dominican Republic	Oficina Nacional de Estadistica	one.gob.do
Ecuador	Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos	www.inec.gov.ec
Egypt	Egypt State Information Service	sis.gov.eg
Egypt	CAPMAS	capmas.gov.eg
El Salvador	Dirección General de Estadística y Censos	www.digestyc.gob.sv
Equatorial Guinea	Direction Générale des Statistiques	dgecnstat-ge.org
Eritrea	National Statistics Office	no website
Estonia	Statistics Estonia	stat.ee
Ethiopia	Central Statistical Agency (CSA)	www.csa.gov.et
Finland	Statistics Finland	stat.fi
Fiji	Fiji Islands Bureau of Statistics	www.statsfiji.gov.fj
France	National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE)	insee.fr
France	Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)	statistique-publique.fr
Gabon	Direction générale de la statistique et des études économiques French (DGSEE)	www.stat-gabon.ga
Gambia	Central Statistics Department	www.csd.gm
Georgia	National Statistics Office (GeoStat)	geostat.ge
Germany	Statistisches Bundesamt	destatis.de
Ghana	Ghana Statistical Services	statsghana.gov.gh
Greece	National Statistical Service of Greece	statistics.gr
Guatemala	Instituto Nacional de Estadística	ine.gob.gt
Guinea	Direction nationale de la statistique French (DNS)	stat-guinee.org
Guinea-Bissau	Instituto Nacional de Estatistica e Censos	stat-guinebissau.com
Guyana	Guyana Bureau of Statistics	statisticsguyana.gov.gy
Honduras	Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos	ine-hn.org
Hong Kong	Census and Statistics Department	censtatd.gov.hk
Hungary	Hungarian Central Statistical Office - Központi Statisztikai Hivatal	portal.ksh.hu
Iceland	Statistics Iceland	Statice.is
India	Indian Statistical Institute	mospi.nic.in
India	Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute,	censusindia.gov.in
Indonesia	Statistics Indonesia	bps.go.id
Iran	Statistical Centre of Iran	www.sci.org.ir
Ireland	Central Statistics Office of Ireland	cso.ie
Israel	Israel Central Bureau of Statistics	cbs.gov.il
Italy	Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT)	istat.it
Jamaica	Statistical Institute of Jamaica	statinja.com
Japan	Bureau of Statistics	stat.go.jp
Jordan	The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan-Department of Statistics	www.dos.gov.jo
Kazakhstan	Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan on statistics	eng.stat.kz
Kenya	Kenya national bureau of statistics(KNBS)	cbs.go.ke
Kiribati	Kiribati Statistics Office	www.spc.int
Kosovo	Statistical Office of Kosovo	esk.rks-gov.net
Kyrgyzstan	National Statistical Committee of Kyrgyz Republic	stat.kg
Laos	National Statistical Centre	nsc.gov.la
Latvia	Central Statistical Bureau of Latvia	www.csb.gov.lv
Lebanon	Central Administration for Statistics (CAS)	www.cas.gov.lb
Lesotho	Bureau of Statistics	www.bos.gov.ls
Liberia	Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services (LISGIS)	lisgis.gov.lr
Lithuania	Department of Statistics of Lithuania	www.stat.gov.lt
Macedonia	Statistical Office of Macedonia	www.stat.gov.mk
Madagascar	Institut National de la Statistique French (INSTAT)	instat.mg
Malawi	National Statistical Office	nso.malawi.net
Malaysia	Department of Statistics-Malaysia	statistics.gov.my
Maldives	Ministry of Planning and National Development	planning.gov.mv
Mali	Institut national de la statistique French (INSTAT)	instat.gov.ml
Malta	National Statistics Office (NSO)	nso.gov.mt
Marshall Islands	Office of Management and Statistics	www.spc.int
Mauritania	Office national de la statistique French (ONS)	ons.mr
Mauritius	Central Statistical Office	statsmauritius.gov.mu
Federated States of Micronesia	Federated States of Micronesia Division of Statistics	www.spc.int
Mexico	National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Data Processing (INEGI)	www.inegi.org.mx
Moldova	National Bureau of Statistics of the Republic of Moldova	statistica.md
Monaco	Institut Monégasque de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques	gouv.mc
Mongolia	National Statistical Office	www.nso.mn
Montenegro	Statistical Office of Montenegro	monstat.org
Morocco	Direction de la Statistique	www.insea.ac.ma
Mozambique	Instituto Nacional de Estatística (Moçambique)	www.ine.gov.mz
Namibia	Central Bureau of Statistics National Planning Commission	www.mpc.gov.na
Nepal	Central Bureau of Statistics	cbs.gov.np
The Netherlands	Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek	cbs.nl
New Zealand	Statistics New Zealand	stats.govt.nz
Nicaragua	Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos	www.inec.gob.ni
Niger	Institut national de la statistique French (INS)	www.stat-niger.org
Nigeria	National Bureau of Statistics (Nigeria)	nigerianstat.gov.ng
Norway	Statistics Norway	ssb.no
Oman	Ministry of National Economy	mone.gov.om
Palestinian Authority	Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics	pcbs.gov.ps
Pakistan	Statistics Division - Government of Pakistan	statpak.gov.pk
Panama	Dirección de Estadística y Censo	contraloria.gob.pa
Papua New Guinea	National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea	www.spc.int
Paraguay	Direción General de Estadísticas, Encuestas y Censos	www.dgeec.gov.py
Peru	Instituto Nacional de Estadística e Informática	www.inei.gob.pe
Philippines	National Statistics Office (NSO)	www.census.gov.ph
Philippines	National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)	www.nscb.gov.ph
Poland	Central Statistical Office (GUS)	stat.gov.pl
Portugal	Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE)	ine.pt
Romania	National Institute of Statistics	insse.ro
Russia	Federal State Statistics Service	gks.ru
Rwanda	National institute of statistics of Rwanda(NISR)	statistics.gov.rw
Samoa	Statistical Services Division	www.spc.int
San Marino	Ufficio Programmazione Economica Centro Elaborazione Dati e Statistica (UPECEDS)	statistica.sm
Sao Tome and Principe	Instituto Nacional de Estatistica (São Tomé e Príncipe)	ine.st
Saudi Arabia	Central Department of Statistics	planning.gov.sa
Senegal	Agence nationale de la statistique et de la démographie (French) (ANSD)	ansd.sn
Serbia	Statistical office of the Republic of Serbia	webrzs.stat.gov.rs/axd/en/
22x20px Seychelles	National Statistics Bureau	nsb.gov.sc
Sierra Leone	Statistics Sierra Leone	statistics.sl
Slovakia	Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic	statistics.sk
Slovenia	Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia	www.stat.si
Solomon Islands	Solomon Islands Statistics	www.spc.int
South Africa	Statistics South Africa	www.statssa.gov.za
South Korea	Statistics Korea (KOSTAT)	kostat.go.kr
Sri Lanka	Department of Census and Statistics	www.statistics.gov.lk
Saint Lucia	Government Statistics Department	stats.gov.lc
Spain	National Statistics Institute (INE)	ine.es
Sudan	Central Bureau of Statistics of Sudan	cbs.gov.sd
Swaziland	Central Statistics Office of Swaziland	www.gov.sz
Sweden	Statistics Sweden	scb.se
Switzerland	Swiss Federal Statistical Office FSO	bfs.admin.ch
Syria	Central Bureau of Statistics in Syria	cbssyr.org
Tajikistan	State Committee on Statistics of Tajikistan	stat.tj
Tanzania	Bureau of Statistics (Tanzania)	nbs.go.tz
Thailand	National Statistical Office of Thailand (NSO)	web.nso.go.th
Togo	Direction générale de la statistique et de la comptabilité nationale French (DGSCN)	stat-togo.org
Tonga	Government of Tonga-Statistics Department	www.spc.int
Trinidad and Tobago	Central Statistical Office	cso.gov.tt
Tunisia	Institut National de la Statistique of Tunisia (INS)	www.ins.nat.tn
Turkey	Turkish Statistical Institute	www.turkstat.gov.tr
Turkmenistan	State Committee of Turkmenistan on Statistics	stat.gov.tm
Uganda	Uganda Bureau of Statistics	www.ubos.org
Ukraine	State Statistics Committee of Ukraine	ukrstat.gov.ua
United Arab Emirates	United Arab Emirates Ministry of Economy Statistic Reports	economy.ae
Uruguay	Instituto Nacional de Estadística	www.ine.gub.uy
Uzbekistan	State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan on Statistics	stat.uz
United Kingdom	Office for National Statistics (ONS)	www.statistics.gov.uk
United States	United States Census Bureau	census.gov
United States	Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)	bls.gov
United States	National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)	nces.ed.gov
United States	Energy Information Administration (EIA)	eia.doe.gov
United States	National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)	www.nass.usda.gov
United States	Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)	ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs
United States	Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)	bea.gov
United States	National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)	cdc.gov/nchs
Vanuatu	Vanuatu national Statistics Office (VNSO)	www.spc.int
Venezuela	Oficina Central de Estadística e Informática	www.ine.gov.ve
Vietnam	General Statistics Office	www.gso.gov.vn
Zambia	Central Statistical Office of Zambia	www.zamstats.gov.zm
Zimbabwe	Central Statistical Office of Zimbabwe	www.zimstat.co.zw

International statistical services[link]

• Eurostat
• United Nations Statistics Division - unstats.un.org
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics - www.uis.unesco.org
• OECD Statistics Division - oecd.org/statistics
• PARIS21 - www.paris21.org

See also[link]

• Official statistics
• Statistics
• List of statistical topics
• List of academic statistical associations
• National agencies responsible for GDP measurement

External links[link]

• World Bank directory of national statistic sites
• OECD Worldwide statistical sources