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Preface

Australian Social Trends 2004 is the 11th edition of an annual series that presents information on contemporary social issues and areas of public policy concern. By drawing on a wide range of ABS statistics, and statistics from other official sources, Australian Social Trends describes aspects of Australian society, and how these are changing over time. It is designed to assist and encourage informed decision-making, and to be of value to a wide audience including those engaged in research, journalism, marketing, teaching and social policy, as well as anyone interested in how we live today and how we've changed over recent decades.

The material presented in Australian Social Trends 2004 is organised into eight chapters. As in previous editions, each of the first seven chapters represents a major area of social concern (i.e. population, family and community, health, education and training, work, economic resources, and housing), with an eighth chapter covering other areas of social concern (e.g.crime and justice, culture and leisure, and the environment). This edition also contains, for the first time, an introduction that expands on the rationale behind the publication and describes its main aims and features.

The opportunity has been taken to present some articles which expand and update analysis of topics examined in previous editions using the most recently available data. For example, in this edition, such articles cover population projections, child care, home ownership, and religious affiliation. There are also articles, including several that utilise data from the ABS 2002 General Social Survey, which cover new topics of interest, such as social interactions outside home, families with no employed parent, and paying for university education. The national and state summary tables which present key social indicators in each of the seven major areas of social concern have been updated, as have the tables comparing Australia with major OECD countries, our closest neighbours, and our trading partners. The number of articles listed in the cumulative index now comes to over 300, published across all 11 editions.

I would like to thank the people throughout the ABS who compiled, wrote and edited Australian Social Trends 2004, and Tony Eardley from the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, who contributed an article for the Economic Resources chapter. I would also like to thank reviewers from a range of Commonwealth agencies and departments who gave their time and expertise, and various organisations that assisted in other ways by providing data and advice, including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services.

The ABS welcomes readers' suggestions on how the publication could be improved. To convey your views or to ask for more information, please contact the Director of Social Analysis and Reporting at the address below.


Dennis Trewin
Australian Statistician

Australian Bureau of Statistics
PO Box 10
Belconnen ACT 2616

June 2004





INTRODUCTION

AIMS

The ABS approach to measuring population wellbeing divides wellbeing into component areas of social concern, e.g. health, family and community, work, and so on.(SEE ENDNOTE 1) While this approach is intuitive and useful, and largely mirrors the way in which social welfare is publicly administered, its success is partly dependent on the extent to which information can be re-integrated to provide a cohesive picture of society and social trends. Certainly, when policy makers, service providers or researchers seek information, their focus is on complex social issues, which often cut across such areas. For example, to usefully inform on an issue such as homelessness, a researcher would need to bring together data relating to housing, family and community, and economic resources; and data on employment, and health may also be relevant. Thus, Australian Social Trends (AST) aims to bring together data from a wide range of social data collections, and to present these data from an issues driven perspective. More specifically, AST aims to:

• inform decision-making, research and discussion on social conditions in Australia, social issues of current and ongoing concern, population groups of interest, and changes in these over time - by drawing together up-to-date social data and analysis from both ABS and other official sources, and incorporating readily understood commentary about the statistics
• support the monitoring and review of progress towards social goals, changes in social conditions, and levels of population wellbeing - by presenting a comprehensive set of social indicators on a regular basis.