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ABS Video Tutorials |
These video tutorials will familiarise you with a range of ABS products that are useful in the classroom. You can view transcripts of each segment by clicking on the triangle next to its heading.
On this page:
 Segment 1: Tutorials Introductory Video |
Includes: A brief introduction to, and aim of, the tutorial ABS Resources for Teachers.
Duration: 0:33 seconds
Size: 1.66MB
Tutorials Introductory Video
| Segment 2: Introductory video for Census topics |
Includes: Introduction to the Census topics as well as what is not included in the video segments.
Duration: 0:39 seconds
Size: 1.96 MB
Introductory video for Census topics
 Segment 3: Census product - QuickStats
Transcript:
QuickStats is designed to provide users with a summary of key Census statistics for a specific area and basic comparisons to Australian data. Start at the ABS homepage, click on 'Census Data' on the left hand navigation menu. Find 'QuickStats' in the body of the page and choose which year’s Census data you want displayed. You can search for a location by using any of the above tabs. Select a location from a series of lists or choose a location from a map. In this example we will type in ‘Fairfield’. Click on the ‘Search’ button and a list of all the places that include ‘Fairfield’ have come up. Click on the scroll bar and drag down to view all locations for your search.
If you’re having trouble choosing a location, click on the Information icon above your location search results list. This page contains descriptions of all the geographies available, to help you make your selection. Select your area of interest from the list. We will select 'Fairfield Local Government Area'. Once a selection has been made, a map appears to check it is the wanted area. If you are happy with the selection, click on the 'View QuickStats' button. You will see the major characteristics, such as population and country of birth, are displayed for your chosen area. For each characteristic, comparisons are also made to Australia as whole. A descriptive commentary on the characteristics is available at the bottom of each data table. Note the Information Icons against the Census Topics. Clicking on the icon will take you to further information about a particular Census variable.
QuickStats data are available for geography areas as large as Australia as well as local government areas, state suburbs and postal areas. Please note QuickStats only shows selected Census topics and the top 5 results for that topic. If you’re after more detailed data, you may prefer to use Census Tables instead. QuickStats is a great resource when students are studying their local community. Why not ask students to make a fact sheet or profile of their chosen area, using a QuickStats report.
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Includes: Searching for key summary Census data using QuickStats.
Duration: 3:34 minutes
Size: 8.04 MB
Census product - QuickStats
| Segment 4: Census product - MapStats |
Includes: Using MapStats to find Census data for your area of interest, that can be visually explored.
Duration: 2:50 minutes
Size: 9.6 MB
Census product - MapStats
| Segment 5: Census product - Community Profiles
Transcript:
Community Profiles allow you to investigate a diverse range of Census topics from six different perspectives. Each profile looks at a different population or respondent location and presents a comprehensive statistical picture of a particular area.
Start at the ABS website homepage and click on 'Census Data' on the left hand navigation menu. Find 'Community Profiles' in the body of the page and choose which year’s Census data you want displayed. As with QuickStats and MapStats, search for a geographic area by using one of the above tabs. In this example we will type in a keyword to search for our area of interest. Select a specific location from the results list. Scroll down to view all locations for your search. Let’s select Wyndham Local Government Area.
Once a selection has been made, a map of the chosen area appears. Check it is the wanted area. If it is, click on ‘View Community Profiles’. Depending on the area you select, there may be up to 6 types of Community Profiles available: the Basic Community Profile, the Indigenous profile, Time Series profile, Place of Enumeration profile which refers to the location of respondents on Census night, the Expanded Community profile which provides more detailed data than the Basic Community profile, and the Working Population profile.
Click on the Downloads tab to find the downloadable files for each profile. Open the profile you want to explore by clicking on the 'Free Download' link. You can choose to save the file to a specified location or simply ‘Open’ the file and save it later. The community profile will open in an Excel spreadsheet with a list of Tables. The tabs at the bottom provide links to further table topics, concepts and definition and individual tables. If you want to know more about this Census product, a separate tutorial on Community Profiles is available from the ABS suite of self-directed learning videos. |
Includes: How to find Census data for your area of interest using Community Profiles.
Duration: 2:45 minutes
Size: 7.58 MB
Census product - Community Profiles
| Segment 6: Census product - Census Tables
Transcript:
Census Tables are very useful when you need detailed data on a particular Census topic for a particular area. They are sourced from Community Profiles but provide an easier way to look at the tables. Note that Census Tables and Community Profiles are pre-formatted tables and the same list of variables is used for all geographic areas. There are also Census variables with full classification tables available. These tables are more detailed than the standard Census Tables. Types of variables include: Industry of Employment, Occupation, Birthplace and Language spoken at home.
Start at the ABS homepage, and click on 'Census Data' on the left hand navigation menu. Find 'Census Tables' on the page and choose which year’s Census data you want displayed. You can see that unlike other Census products, you have two search options for Census Tables: find data by either topic or location. Let’s search by location and click ‘Next’. Please note you can select different search methods using the tabs above. Type in your chosen area of interest. In this example we will type in 'Parramatta' and click ‘Search’ to continue. Select a specific location from the search results list. We will choose Parramatta LGA in this example. Once a selection has been made, a map appears to check it is the area you wanted. If it is, click on ‘Select Topic’.
Before choosing a topic, you can choose a count method. In 2006, primary output is based on Place of Usual Residence, which is the default setting. Other count method options are Location on Census night and Place of Employment. When choosing a count method note that Place of usual residence generates all person variables; however, the location on Census night count method generates variables based on dwellings and households. For example – internet and computer usage. We will leave the default setting as our preferred count method. Select a topic from the list. For this example we’ll choose Birthplace and then from the data list we will choose Country of birth by Age and Sex. Click on View Census Table.
To open the Census Table in Excel, go to the ‘Downloads Tab’ and click on the ‘Free Download’ file. You can either choose to Save or Open the file. Save the file if you expect to come back to it again. Otherwise you can open and save the file later. This is what your table will look like in Microsoft Excel: you are presented with a list of countries of birth for the Local Government Area of Parramatta. The table provides a breakdown by Sex and Age. If you want to view a full classification table, go back to the Topics page and select your topic of interest from the list .
To continue with our example we will once again select Birthplace. Then select a full classification table if it’s available from the data list. To continue, click on ‘View Census Table’. To open the Census Table, go to the ‘Downloads' tab and click on the ‘Free Download’ link on the right hand side of the page. Once again you can Save or Open the file. The table has a more detailed list of the countries of birth for people living in Parramatta; however, a breakdown by age is not provided for the full classification table. |
Includes: How to find detailed Census data for your area of interest and downloading a Census table.
Duration: 4:56 minutes
Size: 13.5 MB
Census product - Census Tables National Statistics for Commerce and Economic teachers
| Segment 7: Introductory video - National Statistics for Commerce and Economic teachers |
Includes: Introduction to national statistics tutorials for Commerce and Economics teachers.
Duration: 0:23 seconds
Size: 1.13 MB
Introductory video - National Statistics for Commerce and Economic teachers
| Segment 8: Key National Indicators
Transcript:
Start at the ABS home page. Note the quick links on the left hand navigation menu to access main economic indicators. If you need the latest CPI, Labour Force and National Accounts data, you can access them from here under National Statistics. A good starting point is Key National Indicators.
Key National Indicators present summary tables and graphs on the latest economic and social measures including GDP, CPI, Unemployment and Average Weekly Earnings. The link opens in the Summary tab. You will find tables of key economics and social indicators, and links to the full publication sources of this summary data. Note the summary data includes the latest figures for each indicator, as well as the percentage change from the previous quarter and the percentage change from the corresponding period last year.
Summary tables are a very useful resource for your class as they are easy to find and provide a quick snapshot of the latest key national data. You can switch to 'Graphs' for the same information in graphical form. Similarly, you can access links to source publications from this page. For example, click on the 'Labour Force' hyperlink and then open the publication Labour Force, Australia (cat # 6202.0). As with all ABS publications, it will open on the Summary page.
For more detail go to the Download tab and download the full publication in PDF format or open one of the Excel tables if you’re after a particular dataset. If you would like to view the Glossary, click on the Explanatory Notes tab. In most ABS publications, this is where you will find a brief introduction of the publication as well as a glossary of terms. |
Includes: Finding Key National Indicators on the ABS website and a demonstration of how to access source publications.
Duration: 2:25 minutes
Size: 7.01MB
Key National Indicators
Segment 9: Consumer Price Index
Transcript:
From the quick links on the left hand navigation menu of the ABS home page, you can find the Consumer Price Index quarterly publication. The publication opens on the Summary tab to present the latest key data for all industry groups including the latest quarterly change in the CPI and movements over a 12 month period. Scroll down to see the key points and overview of CPI movements for the latest quarter. To access previous CPI data, click on the Past and Future Releases tab. This lists all previous issues of the CPI publication, as well as the next expected release date. We will now go back to the Summary tab.
Note other options from the left hand menu include a 'Capital Cities Comparison' and 'Main Contributors to Change'. If you click on 'Main Contributors to Change', you'll be presented with a discussion on each of the CPI groups. All the important information is here, but your students will not be overwhelmed or confused with too much data. You can easily find more detailed data to inform your teaching by going to the Downloads tab. From here you can download the full publication in PDF or view time series data in an Excel spreadsheet. Click on the table you want to view.
For more information about the Consumer Price Index, please view the slideshow ‘CPI: Reality beyond the Textbook’. This is a valuable education resource for the senior economics classroom that was delivered by ABS CPI expert, William Milne. To find the presentation, start from the ABS homepage, click on the ‘Education’ link located on the top navigation menu. You will be taken to the ABS Education Services entry page. Go via the Teacher Area, select ‘Resources for the Classroom’ and then click on ‘Senior Curriculum Resources’. The presentation was delivered at the ABS as part of the 2008 VCTA Comview Conference. |
Includes: Finding Consumer Price Index (CPI) on the website and a demonstration of how to access a CPI education resource from the ABS Education pages.
Duration: 2:41 minutes
Size: 7.63 MB
Consumer Price Index
| Segment 10: National Accounts
Transcript:
National Accounts presents the latest data on the Australian economy including GDP, international trade, investment, net disposable income and a range of feature articles on selected topics.
Starting at the ABS homepage, click on the 'National Accounts' link under the National Statistics heading. You will be directed to the National Accounts themes page which contains a comprehensive list of National Accounts releases. Scrolling down, you will find a wealth of information papers and an index of National Accounts feature articles.
One of the main economic indicators measured by the ABS is GDP. Estimates of GDP are available on a quarterly and annual basis. Get the quarterly GDP figures in catalogue number 5206.0. Open the publication and you will see the quarterly figures are shown at the top of the page, including the yearly percentage change. Scrolling down, you can see graphs are also provided along with key points for the respective quarter. To access the full publication click on the Downloads tab. Download the full publication in PDF format or to get more detailed data, open one of the Microsoft Excel time series spreadsheets. You will find more than 50 years of time series data for the quarterly GDP estimates.
For annual estimates of GDP, go back to the ABS home page by clicking on the ABS logo in the top left hand corner of the page. Note that you can click this logo at any time to get back to the ABS home page. Select National Accounts from the quick links again. The Australian System of National Accounts, cat. no. 5204.0, provides a more detailed breakdown of various components of National Accounts, including annual GDP. Please note a wealth of economics data is also available via the ABS Theme pages from the top navigation menu. This is just another pathway for finding the data you want. |
Includes: A demonstration of the National Accounts themes page and how to find quarterly and annual GDP data.
Duration: 2:46 minutes
Size: 8.41 MB
National Accounts
Key Products for Teachers
| Segment 11: Australian Social Trends |
Includes: A description of some of the main features of the Australian Social Trends publication and where to find it on the ABS website.
Duration: 3:09 minutes
Size: 9.00 MB
Australian Social Trends
Segment 12: Measure of Australia's Progress
Transcript:
Measures of Australia’s Progress came out of the growing interest in assessing whether life in Australia was getting better. One outcome of measuring and reporting on progress is to make sense of the world we live in. Students can use this publication as a rich information source for assignments in a range of subject areas, with a focus on longitudinal analysis. A class discussion could arise about the potential indicators of a country’s progress and the approach taken by ABS to measure progress in Australia.
The Measures of Australia’s Progress publication is found on the left-hand menu of the ABS homepage, under Key Products. The publication opens on the home page to present the latest articles on selected indicators. On the left hand menu under the Summary tab there are links to chapters and all available feature articles. In the 2009 issue, you can also access a 10 year summary for selected indicators. Here, the annual rate of change for selected summary indicators is displayed on a graph. Please note, although publication layouts may vary from year to year, the left hand navigation menu will always provide links to core information available in the publication.
We will go back to the home page via the Summary tab, and click on a topic of interest. There are time series graphs displayed with accompanying commentary. Scroll down to find related publications of interest. A list of all related publications is also found under the Related Information tab. If you would like to access the source data for use with your students, click on the Downloads tab and then click on the Excel icon. The data cube will open in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet on the contents pages. Table topics covered in the PDF publication will be included in this spreadsheet. Open a table from one of the worksheets below. You can also open a table from the body of the page. Simply click on the table number to open the time series data you want. This table is displaying life expectancy for the ten year period 1997 to 2007. |
Includes: How to find the Measures of Australia's progress publication and a brief demonstration of key features.
Duration: 3:02 minutes
Size: 8.75 MB
Measures of Australia's Progress
| Segment 13: Yearbook Australia
Transcript:
Year Book Australia is the principal reference work produced by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Yearbook series provides a detailed statistical overview of economic and social conditions in Australia. It also contains information about Australia’s geography and climate, government, international relations, defence, education, health and welfare support systems. This is a broad-ranging publication that is a rich reference for projects and classroom activities across the curriculum.
Find Australian Yearbooks from the left-hand navigation menu of the ABS homepage. This will take you the entry page of the full suite of Australian Yearbook products. Select 'Yearbook Australia' and you'll be taken to the latest release. All feature articles and Media Releases can be found under the Summary tab on the left hand menu. You may choose to view articles on the web or download a free PDF copy from the Downloads tab.
Yearbooks can also be purchased in hard copy as a great addition to your school library. Did you know that you can access on-line issues of Australian Yearbooks dating back to 1908? Simply click on the Past & Future releases tab to select the Yearbook you want to view. |
Includes: How to find the Yearbook Australia series and a brief demonstration of key features.
Duration: 1:39 minutes
Size: 5 MB
Yearbook Australia
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This page last updated 29 April 2013 |
