1395.0 - Essential Statistical Assets for Australia, 2014  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 12/12/2014   
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STATISTIC ASSESSMENT RESULTS BY QUALITY DIMENSION
Quality is a multidimensional concept and the dimension traffic lights provide an overview of the state of the multifaceted nature of the quality for the statistic. The importance of each quality dimension may also vary depending on use of the statistic and context. The results for each quality dimension can help inform where investment needs to be focussed at the dimension level across the statistical system, as seen in Table 3. An overview of the statistic assessment traffic light results for each quality dimension for the statistics is also available in Appendix 1.

Table 3: Number of statistics by traffic light results by quality dimension


Quality Dimensions
Traffic Light Results

Green
Amber
Red

Institutional Environment
70
1
0
Relevance
61
10
0
Timeliness
45
20
6
Accuracy
51
18
2
Coherence
60
10
1
Interpretability
69
1
1
Accessibility
71
0
0


The accessibility dimension produced all green traffic lights for every statistic (71 statistics) and the institutional environment and interpretability dimensions produced green traffic lights for nearly every statistic (70 and 69 statistics respectively). This signified nearly all the datasets within the statistics were meeting the standards set for nearly all of the quality aspects for these dimensions. For example, most key information within statistics was publicly available within the accessibility dimension, most data had confidentiality protections in place in the institutional environment dimension, and most data was available with additional information to help users interpret the data within the interpretability dimension.

The timeliness and accuracy dimensions produced a high number of red and amber traffic lights (20 statistics with amber traffic lights and 6 statistics with red traffic lights for timeliness; and 18 statistics with amber traffic lights and 2 statistics with red traffic lights for accuracy). Within the timeliness dimension, the red and amber traffic lights usually indicated datasets which did not meet the critical frequency of the statistic, identified on the ESA list. The critical frequency was set during the extensive consultation period for the development of the list and represents the demand of users. Also within the timeliness dimension was the issue of some datasets not meeting the standard set for the duration between collection and release of data. Within the accuracy dimension, the red and amber traffic lights were the result of a range of factors, such as:
    • some datasets did not cover the full scope of the statistic, for example, remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities or non-private dwellings may not be enumerated,
    • some datasets not adjusting for missing values, and
    • for administrative datasets, there were inconsistencies across some datasets, for example, where some fields of information may suffer from accuracy issues, but others may not.

The relevance and coherence dimensions produced a relatively high number of amber traffic lights (10 statistics each) compared to the other dimensions. Within the relevance dimension, the amber traffic lights were largely due to some datasets not producing key information identified in either the description of the statistic on the ESA list, critical disaggregations, or spatial disaggregations. The information identified on the ESA list was set during the extensive Phase 1 consultation period and represents the demand of users. Within the coherence dimension the amber traffic lights can generally be explained by some datasets not maintaining full comparability over time. This may have been where questions or topics changed within a survey, or, for administrative datasets, where there were coherence issues with data from multiple sources (for example, different states and territories using different forms to collect data).