1308.7 - Inform NT, Sep 2010  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 08/10/2010   
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DEVELOPMENTS IN ABS STATISTICS

On this page:
Improving the Evidence Base for Domestic and Family Violence in the NT
Draft Information Development Plan (IDP) for Not–for–Profit Sector
CensusAtSchool 2010 Data Now Available
Australian Health Survey Announced
ABS Website Keeps Evolving


IMPROVING THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE IN THE NT

The ABS is about to complete a six–month outposting to the NT Department of Health and Families to undertake a domestic and family violence data scoping study.

Domestic and family violence is a broad and significant policy area, involving a range of social issues and service providers across the government and non-government sectors. A lack of consistent and comparable data collection and analysis in the field has long been identified as a pressing issue by policy makers and researchers across Australia. The study involved:

  • an audit of all domestic and family violence data collected in the NT
  • an analysis of the consistency around how key concepts are defined and consistency across datasets from different sources
  • an analysis of what gaps or deficiencies needed to be addressed
  • an analysis of how the existing data collection and analysis in the NT could be improved through existing business processes and governance arrangements.

If you would like more information on this study, or if you would like to discuss the possibility of having an ABS officer outposted to your agency to help you address a high priority statistical need, please contact the ABS NT office, phone 08 8943 2105 or email nt.statistics@abs.gov.au.


DRAFT INFORMATION DEVELOPMENT PLAN (IDP) FOR NOT–FOR–PROFIT SECTOR

The ABS recently released a Draft Information Development Plan (IDP) for the not–for–profit sector. The Information Paper: Non-Profit Institutions – A Draft Information Development Plan, Jul 2010 (cat. no. 5256.0.55.001) outlines the ABS response to a recent Productivity Commission report in which the Commission recommended that the ABS was best suited to draw up an IDP that addressed statistical information needs for the non–profit sector, a measurement framework, the availability of statistical information, and avenues of future data development.

The Draft IDP is intended to guide discussion of the statistical needs and priorities for the sector and also to draw attention to the statistical potential of information held in government administrative systems. Some of the findings in the Draft IDP include:
    • various potential data sources are not always suitable in their current form
    • a very large number of unincorporated non–profit institutions are missed in current data collections
    • specific attention needs to be given to volunteering as a major part of non–profit institutions
    • data on outcomes and impacts are problematic.

The Draft IDP suggests the following to improve information on non–profit institutions:
    • a satellite account for non–profit institutions to be compiled every 3–4 years to coincide with other data sources and provide an improved range of information
    • organisations external to the ABS to be consulted and encouraged to refine or expand their data collections
    • greater attention is required on particular areas such as philanthropy, volunteering and smaller or unincorporated associations.

Stakeholders are invited to provide comments on the Draft IDP – please see the Information Paper for further details.


CENSUS AT SCHOOL 2010 DATA NOW AVAILABLE

The ABS CensusAtSchool project is a free online questionnaire and analysis resource for students in Years 4 to 12 in all Australian schools. More than 22,000 students took part in the voluntary 2010 CensusAtSchool questionnaire. The aim of the project is to spark students interest in statistics by making them part of the data and making them aware of the process by which the data was collected. Students have direct access to raw data samples which provide them with the flexibility to raise their own questions and initiate student–centred investigations. Raw analysis of the full dataset (which is used only for education purposes) indicates that pizza/pasta is still the favourite take–away food choice for students in Years 4 to 12 and that 40%  of girls listen to pop as their favourite music while rap is the most popular choice for boys at 21%. If you are a teacher or have a child in Years 4 to 12, you can get involved and access the data from the 2010 questionnaire by visiting the CensusAtSchool Data webpage.


AUSTRALIAN HEALTH SURVEY ANNOUNCED

In May 2010 the ABS announced the 2011–13 Australian Health Survey. This will be the most comprehensive health survey of Australians with a random sample of 50,000 Australian adults and children to be asked to complete it. Participants will be asked about any diagnosed health problems they have, the medications and medical services that they use, and new questions about lifestyle factors such as diet and physical activity. For the first time, survey respondents will also be asked to provide voluntary blood and urine samples to allow testing for nutritional status and for early indicators of lifestyle–related disease, such as high cholesterol levels and high or low blood glucose levels. For more information about the survey please see the Australian Health Survey webpage.


ABS WEBSITE KEEPS EVOLVING

Over the last few months the ABS has released a number of improvements or new features to its website, including:
  • a new Health webpage – visit this page to find out what's new, use an interactive sliding scale to calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI), have a look at a visual representation of "If Australia were only 100 people", or follow the links to find out more about various health topics such as health conditions and risk factors
  • a variety of new interactive tools to help visually display data, including an animated historial population chart that shows changes to Australia's population from 1788 to 2007, a calculator to demonstrate the change in purchasing power of an amount of money between two chosen dates, and two charts demonstrating changes in the House Price Index and in population projections