Australian Social Trends 2009 March Quarter - State Media Alert, 2009

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March 18, 2009

16/2009

ATTENTION: Chiefs of Staff and News Editors

Australian Social Trends - out in one week!

A premier publication of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) - Australian Social Trends - will be available on the ABS website at <www.abs.gov.au> in one week's time on Wednesday 25 March 2009.

Australian Social Trends is a quarterly analysis of Australian society which provides a rich source of story material for both news and feature writers.

An ABS spokesperson will be available for interviews at the Press Gallery, Canberra on release day (25 March) from 11.30am. To ensure an interview time, please call to pre-book by calling Ilona Fraser (02) 6252 7480 or Richard Lynch (02) 6252 6139.

Articles available in the March quarter issue of this publication include:

  • Future trends in Australia's population: looks at population projections for Australia, the states and territories and the capital cities. The article considers the projected size of the population over the next 50 or so years, the changing age structure, and the effect that migration can have on the population.
  • Are households using renewable energy?: highlights trends in household energy use. The article looks at the use of wood and solar energy by households in the different states and territories, as well as the support for GreenPower schemes in different states and territories (e.g. whether households pay extra for GreenPower).
  • Couples in Australia: discusses partnering in Australia by various characteristics (e.g. age, religion, whether people are married or in a de facto relationship). It also describes the characteristics of people who don't have partners, looks at whether people in de facto relationships plan to marry, and whether couples plan to have children.
  • Mental health: focuses on people who had a mental illness in 2007. It looks at the different types of mental disorders, how common they are and what use people are making of mental health services.
  • Trends in household work: looks at whether people are doing more or less household work (cooking, cleaning etc) than in the past and how this work is divided between men and women.
  • Household debt: examines levels of debt, types of debt and who owes money.
  • Retirement and retirement intentions: discusses why people have retired (or intend to retire), sources of income after retirement, the plans people have for retirement (e.g. what age they plan to retire) and whether people plan to wind down to retirement (e.g. switch to part-time work before retiring).
  • Trends in superannuation coverage: looks at trends in sources of income in retirement, how superannuation coverage has changed over time and which groups of people have the highest levels of coverage.

When reporting on ABS data, please attribute either the Australian Bureau of Statistics or ABS as the source.