Key activities

Our three key activities set out how we achieve the outcome mandated by the Australian Government in our Portfolio Budget Statements (PBS) and reflect how our functions contribute to achieving our purpose. 

Our data and statistics play an important role in supporting evidence-based decision making across government, business and the community. They underpin fiscal and monetary policy, inform the delivery of programs and services essential to the wellbeing of Australians and contribute to informed public discussion. The ABS Forward Work Program outlines our planned statistical releases and data developments over the next four years, ensuring our outputs remain relevant and responsive to evolving needs.

In August 2026 we will deliver a secure and trusted Census, employing over 30,000 field staff. It has been estimated to return $6 in economic value for every dollar invested through improved services, infrastructure and policy planning. 

A major field test of the Census digital service and field operations was completed in 2025 and preparations are on track for the Census in 2026. The 2026 Census will collect data on sexual orientation and gender (for people aged 16+) for the first time. Census data will be available from June 2027, along with the results of the Post Enumeration Survey and rebased population estimates.

We continue to enhance the range of our statistical releases and data collections to increase the value of our statistics. This includes: 

• Completing the transition to a complete monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) on 26 November 2025. The monthly CPI will serve as Australia’s headline measure of inflation, providing more timely and comprehensive insights into economic conditions impacting Australian households and businesses.
• By December 2026 enhanced regional labour market statistics including expanded data for women will support the National Workforce Strategy. It will provide a broader range of reliable regional labour market indicators supporting local decision-making during natural disasters or uncertain economic conditions.
• Addressing gaps in labour market data identified in the Employment White Paper - Working Future to strengthen decision making in areas such as employment outcomes and barriers, quality of employment, job security, job mobility, career progression, value of unpaid care and employment outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
• Modernising agricultural statistics by replacing large agricultural surveys, including the 5 yearly Agricultural Census, with data from government, industry and commercial sources. This reduces reporting burden on farmers and will enable and improve regional detail and timeliness of data releases.
• Replacing the Retail Business Survey with the Monthly Household Spending Indicator using bank transactions data, which will give users a more comprehensive view of household consumption and eliminate the need for businesses to respond to the Retail Business Survey. Consequently, the Retail Trade publication was ceased following the July 2025 release.
• In 2025–26, a revised Business Characteristics Survey will be launched, incorporating stakeholder feedback to improve data on business traits, innovation and digital activity.
• By June 2030, we will launch a cloud-based Business Characteristics Asset with near real-time insights on business formation and resilience which will include new information on small businesses. Migrating to a cloud-based system will enable more flexible, targeted and high-quality insights to meet user needs.
• Building a cloud-based Business Rules Management System to replace legacy technology, increasing visibility of business rules and enable self-service authoring. This system integrates with other cloud-based editing tools, with the first business statistics collection onboarded in July 2025.
• Delivering timely insights from an annual digital-first General Social Survey covering wellbeing, topics like life satisfaction, volunteering, discrimination, financial stress, mental health and participation in cultural activities. The results will be released in mid-2026 to support Measuring What Matters – Australia’s national well-being framework.
• Collaborating with the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to use its data transformation program to improve insights on financial entities it supervises, reducing provider burden, lowering ABS survey costs, while safeguarding national and international accounts statistics. In 2025–26, we will access new insurance data and assess the superannuation data for national and international statistics.
• Expanding the National Ecosystem Accounts to inform government policy, planning and decision-making in the Nature Positive Plan. The ABS will partner with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) to add new measures using available data and based on user needs. 

We build valuable integrated data assets for research in the public interest by linking over 70 administrative datasets from across government and the private sector. There are currently over 2,000 researchers using these data assets.

The Person Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA) combines datasets on healthcare, education, government payments, personal income tax and population. There are 27 datasets currently linked in PLIDA, with up to 62 expected to be available by the end of 2025. The Business Longitudinal Analysis Data Environment (BLADE) is a business-centred integrated data asset that combines tax, trade and intellectual property data with our survey data. There are 31 datasets currently linked in BLADE, with up to 34 expected to be available by the end of 2025.

By maintaining and regularly updating these assets, we can respond effectively to evolving research demands, enabling users to undertake important research about people and businesses over time. We collaborate with a range of government and private sector parties to develop and maintain our data integration and assets. This includes:

• Delivering the Life Course Data Initiative (LCDI) in partnership with the Australian Capital Territory and South Australian (SA) Governments, through the SA Government and University of Adelaide’s BetterStart initiative. The LCDI is capturing data insights to inform policy responses to address entrenched disadvantage. The pilot phase highlights the value of integrated cross-domain and multi-government level data to support policy and program design, monitoring and evaluation.
• Supporting the Treasury Competition Review Taskforce by linking surveys and new administrative datasets to the BLADE. The Review aims to evaluate competition laws, policies and institutions to ensure they are suitable for the modern economy, focusing on reforms that boost productivity and increase wages.
• Collaborating with the Department of Social Services and state and territory criminal justice departments to transition the Criminal Justice Data Asset from proof of concept to production. This supports the National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children and the National Agreement on Closing the Gap. The data asset will facilitate national analysis of the passage of individuals through the criminal justice system, informing government policy, program development, evaluation and research.
• Expanding the National Disability Data Asset with extra data releases through 2025–26, integrating information from various government agencies across Australia to better understand and address the needs of people with disabilities.
• Partnering with Jobs and Skills Australia to enhance the Vocational Education and Training (VET) National Data Asset, integrating government administrative data to track the employment and study outcomes of VET students and the performance of the VET system.
• Partnering with the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO and Geoscience Australia through the Australian Climate Service to deliver climate risk data and insights. In collaboration with the National Emergency Management Agency, we are developing the National Insurance Dataset to understand insurance affordability and target policy solutions for natural hazard risks.

We continue to support the development and adoption of statistical standards and infrastructure to enable the production of high-quality statistics that are contemporary and internationally comparable. This includes:  

• Implementing the Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) across ABS collections, starting with the 2026 Census and labour force statistics from August 2026. This update will ensure that analyses based on labour force and Census data reflect contemporary occupations in the Australian labour market, enabling trend analysis over time. 

  We will establish procedures for regularly maintaining OSCA, with updates planned over the five years leading up to the 2031 Census. This will support a shared understanding of Australia’s evolving workforce and the occupations driving employment and economic growth.

• Implementing the 2025 System of National Accounts and the 7th Edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual. We are currently developing options and timelines for adopting these updated standards for key economic statistics. 
  
  This work will enhance our statistical measurement of international and national accounts, providing new insights into economic activity, including the rise of digitalisation, data and artificial intelligence, the net-zero transition, natural capital depletion and shifting international trade dynamics.

We contribute to the uplift of Australia’s data capabilities through cross-sector partnerships and collaboration. 

The Australian Statistician contributes to the National Data Advisory Council, advising on ethical and effective use of public sector data. We also actively engage in key APS data governance groups - including the Secretaries’ Digital and Data Committee and Deputy Secretaries Data Group to support coordinated planning, investment and delivery of trusted, secure data systems across government.

We are responsible for delivering and operating key data platforms and capabilities that provide the evidence base for policy, insights and program evaluation. Our key capabilities include:

• Secure Environment for Accessing Data (SEADPod) service: A protected analytical environment enabling secure collaboration on sensitive data up to the Protected level.
• Australian National Data Integration Infrastructure : A technical platform providing a secure framework for linking and integrating government datasets to support evidence-based research and policymaking.
• Whole of Australian Government Coding Service: A newly develop coding service that makes classifying data to the latest standard occupation classification easier, faster and cheaper.

We are committed to maximising the value of data and statistics, by partnering with government and private sector entities. Building data integration capabilities that link public and private datasets enables policy-relevant research and new insights into Australia’s communities, economy, and environment. By reusing existing data, we can reduce the amount or frequency of information needed from our surveys, saving time for households and businesses and using public funds more effectively. 

We value data as an asset and ensure it is accessed, integrated and shared responsibly, in line with data management best practice. We are particularly focused on supporting data governance related to Indigenous data.

We will begin delivering on our commitment to implement actions under the Australian Government’s Framework for Governance of Indigenous Data. This includes adhering to the four guidelines to build strong governance over Indigenous data holdings: partnering with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, building data-related capabilities, providing knowledge of data assets and creating an inclusive data system.

As co-chair of the Data Policy Partnership, with the New South Wales Coalition of Aboriginal Peak Organisations, we are working to improve shared access to information at a regional level, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The Data Policy Partnership will serve as the main national governance body for Closing the Gap-related data, explore options for establishing a Bureau of Indigenous Data (as recommended by the Productivity Commission Review of the National Agreement). It will consider the scope, roles, responsibilities and resources needed to support Indigenous data governance and Closing the Gap data development. The Data Policy Partnership aims to support Indigenous data development, governance, sharing and sovereignty.

We lead the APS Data Profession, enhancing the data capabilities of the APS workforce to attract, develop and retain the capabilities of data professionals in line with the APS Data, Digital and Cyber Workforce Plan 2025-30. 

Over the next four years we will focus on refining capability building, expanding data stewardship and sustaining the Data Profession. Through various initiatives, we aim to grow the Data Professional Stream, retain skills, modernise capabilities and broaden the professional workforce. This will include: 

• Continuing to build data capability through the delivery of the facilitated Data in Leadership course.
• Maintaining engagement with APS employees in data roles through our Members Community Platform, which provides information via discussion threads, document libraries and events such as the Data Capability Seminar Series and data focused In Conversation podcasts.
• Leading APS-wide graduate recruitment for the Data Profession, recruiting on behalf of over 35 agencies.
• Strengthening data capability by releasing new Data Profession artefacts, including Data Literacy Pathways, an updated Data Capability Framework aligned with the Skills Framework for the Information Age and a data Employee Value Proposition.
• Enhancing leadership in data through revised data literacy eLearning courses for all APS employees, including Senior Executive Service (SES). This course is being redeveloped to focus on SES accountabilities, data management skills and public sector craft and will be launched in late 2025.

We will increase our focus on building Indigenous data literacy by supporting the development of an Indigenous Data Profession Career Pathway and strengthen numeracy, data literacy across the wider Australian community through the Statistical Society of Australia and the Australian Mathematical Science Institute.

We continue to strengthen relationships with all levels of government, academia, business and the not-for-profit sector to generate statistical information that informs and assesses the effectiveness of economic, social and environmental policies. We consult key clients and users of ABS data and statistics to ensure our statistical products are relevant and valued. For example, we conduct an annual survey of our DataLab users, providing an opportunity for feedback on areas that are working well, suggestions for improvement and recommendations for new features.

Our outposted officer network facilitates access to statistics, develops statistical capability and aims to strengthen statistical coordination with federal, state and territory government host agencies. These officers offer statistical expertise within the host agencies, fostering the use of data in decision-making. 

We are committed to reducing the burden on people and businesses who give us data, by ensuring our data collection methods are modern, effective and efficient. We strive to collect information in the most efficient and timely manner, with minimal impact on businesses and households.

Our Data Acquisition Modernisation Program is transforming how we collect data by delivering secure, people-centred digital services. We place people at the heart of our data collections by making it easier for people and businesses to engage with us by:

• Modernising and improving the digital experience and sustainability of key surveys, including the Labour Force Survey, the Monthly Population Household Surveys, the Wage Price Index, the Building Activity Survey and the Employee Earnings and Hours Survey.
• Modernising our Contact Centre to improve the experience for our workforce and customers.
• Continuing to modernise and replace legacy IT systems by transitioning platforms and processes to a secure and scalable cloud environment.
• Streamlining systems and processes to improve current field workforce remuneration.
• Creating a modern, authoritative and consistent source of auxiliary data attached to the ABS Address Register that will enable more efficient sample design.

This will result in a more responsive, cost-effective data collection process, freeing up staff to focus on quality assurance and meaningful engagement with people and businesses who may need more support to provide their information.

We continue to reform and modernise the way data is sourced, creating simple, safe and easy digital experiences while using data from administrative and other sources. 

We will use our new Whole of Australian Government Coding Service to improve the efficiency of our statistical collections. Starting in 2025–26, we will use this Service to code various statistics, beginning with the Causes of Death collection and the 2026 Census. By 2028–29, all occupation, industry, religious affiliation, language spoken at home, ancestry, education and country of birth statistics collected by the ABS will be coded using this tool.

This will make classifying data to the latest official standard classifications easier, faster and cheaper, ensuring consistent data coding across the Australian data landscape. Consequently, data assets will be more coherent for research and analysis, providing better information for policymakers.