This publication presents estimates of the economic and financial performance of Australian industry. The estimates are produced annually using data collected in the annual Economic Activity Survey (EAS), conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and Business Activity Statement (BAS) data provided by businesses to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
Australian Industry methodology
Overview
Scope
Includes the activity of most businesses operating in the Australian economy. Businesses excluded include:
- most entities in general government.
- entities in defence, finance, insurance and superannuation, and public administration industries.
Geography
All data is available for
- Australia.
Selected data is available for
- States and territories.
Source
Source data includes:
- Economic Activity Survey (EAS).
- Administrative data (Australian Tax Office).
Collection method
Annual survey of businesses, supplemented with administrative data.
Concepts, sources and methods
Estimates in this release are measures of business and industry performance.
History of changes
Government Funding from 2020-21.
Sales and service income from 2020-21.
COVID-19 Support payments 2019-20 to 2021-22.
Health care data from 2018-19.
Introduction
Data collection
Reference period
In general, the data collected in EAS related to the 12 months ending 30 June of the relevant year, however businesses can supply information using another accounting period if required. Businesses who don’t report on a financial year basis have made a substantial contribution to some estimates presented in this publication. As a result, some estimates reflect trading conditions that prevailed in periods outside the twelve months ended June in the relevant year. For more information refer to the processing the data section on Off-June Year Adjusted Estimates.
While financial estimates, including those for wages and salaries, relate to the full 12 months of the relevant financial year, employment estimates relate to the last pay period ending in June. As a result, estimates of wages and salaries per employee may have been affected by fluctuations in employment during the reference period.
Financial estimates included in this release include the activity of businesses in scope of EAS that operated at any time during the reference period. They also included any temporarily inactive units, i.e. those units which were in the development stage or were not in operation, but still existed and held or acquired assets and liabilities and/or incurred some non-operating expenses (e.g. depreciation, administration costs).
Classifications
Estimates in this release are classified by:
- Industry, in accordance with the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 edition.
- State and Territory.
- Employment range based on their number of employees.
Businesses in scope of EAS are determined based on their ANZSIC industry and institutional sector classifications. Institutional sector is determined in accordance with the Standard Institutional Sector Classifications of Australia (SISCA), and is detailed in Standard Economic Sector Classifications of Australia (SESCA).
Scope
The scope of the EAS consisted of all business entities operating in the Australian economy during 2024-25, except for:
- In most industries, entities classified to SISCA Sector 3 General government. This exclusion particularly affected data presented for Public administration and safety, Education and training and Health care and social assistance (ANZSIC Divisions O, P and Q respectively), in that the estimates related only to private sector businesses. Note, however, that SISCA Sector 3 General government businesses classified to Water supply, sewerage and drainage services (ANZSIC Subdivision 28, within Division D) were included - that is, data for relevant local government organisations (for example) were included in the estimates.
- Entities classified to ANZSIC Subdivisions 62 Finance and 63 Insurance and superannuation funds.
- Entities classified to ANZSIC Subdivisions 75 Public administration, 76 Defence and 96 Private households employing staff and undifferentiated goods- and service-producing activities of households for own use.
Government owned or controlled Public Non-Financial Corporations were included.
Coverage
Frame
Businesses contributing to the estimates in this release were sourced from the ABS Business Register (ABSBR), which has two components as described below.
Non-profiled population
The majority of businesses included on the ABSBR are in the Non-Profiled Population. Most of these businesses are understood to have simple structures. For these businesses, the ABS is able to use the Australian Business Number (ABN) as the basis for a statistical unit. One ABN equates to one statistical unit.
Profiled population
For a small number of businesses, the ABN unit is not suitable for ABS economic statistics purposes and the ABS maintains its own units structure through direct contact with businesses. These businesses constitute the Profiled Population. This population consists typically of large or complex groups of businesses. The statistical units model below caters for such businesses:
- Enterprise group: This is a unit covering all the operations in Australia of one or more legal entities under common ownership and/or control. It covers all the operations in Australia of legal entities which are related in terms of the current Corporations Law (as amended by the Corporations Legislation Amendment Act 1991), including legal entities such as companies, trusts and partnerships. Majority ownership is not required for control to be exercised.
- Enterprise: The enterprise is an institutional unit comprising (a) a single legal entity or business entity, or (b) more than one legal entity or business entity within the same enterprise group and in the same institutional sub-sector (i.e. they are all classified to a single SISCA sub-sector).
- Type of activity unit (TAU): The TAU is comprised of one or more business entities, sub-entities or branches of a business entity within an enterprise group that can report production and employment data for similar economic activities. When a minimum set of data items is available, a TAU is created which covers all the operations within an industry subdivision (and the TAU is classified to the relevant subdivision of the ANZSIC). Where a business cannot supply adequate data for each industry, a TAU is formed which contains activity in more than one industry subdivision.
Statistical units
The ABS uses an economic statistics units model on the ABSBR to describe the characteristics of businesses and the structural relationships between related businesses. Within large and diverse business groups, the units model is used to define reporting units that can provide data to the ABS at suitable levels of detail.
Coverage Issues
Industry estimates presented in this release reflect the primary economic activity of businesses in scope of EAS based on their ANZSIC classification. Estimates may include secondary activity relating to another industry where businesses undertake diverse economic activity. For example, a predominantly mining business may also undertake significant amounts of manufacturing. Similarly, a mining business within a specific mining industry, may also produce significant volumes of goods which are normally produced in other mining industries.
Effort is made to minimise any distortion in industry estimates caused by the inclusion of secondary economic activity. A TAU's reported data are split if the inclusion of data relating to the secondary activity, in the statistics of the industry of the primary activity, distorts (by overstating or understating) either the primary or secondary industry statistics at the ANZSIC subdivision level by:
- 3% or more, where the industries of the primary and secondary activities are in the same ANZSIC Division.
- 2% or more, where the industries of the primary and secondary activities are in different ANZSIC Divisions.
The ABS attempts to maintain a current understanding of the structure of the large, complex and diverse business groups that form the Profiled Population on the ABSBR, through direct contact with those businesses. Resultant changes in their structures on the ABSBR can affect:
- The availability of such businesses (or units within them) for inclusion in the annual economic collections.
- The delineation of the units, within those groups, for which data are to be reported.
The ABS attempts to obtain data for those businesses selected for direct collection and which ceased operation during the year, but it is not possible to obtain data for all such businesses.
Improvements to coverage
Data in this release were adjusted to allow for lags in processing new businesses to the ABSBR, and the omission of some businesses from the register. The majority of businesses affected, and to which the adjustments applied, were small in size. As an example, the effect of these adjustments was generally 4% or less for most ANZSIC Divisions and for most states and territories.
Adjustments were made to include new businesses in the estimates for the period in which they commenced operation, rather than when they were processed to the ABSBR.
For more information on these adjustments, please refer to the ABS publication Information Paper: Improvements to ABS Economic Statistics, 1997.
Survey design
Where possible, information for businesses has been sourced from the ATO, rather than by direct collection in the EAS survey. This approach reduces load on Australian businesses and reduces number of units in the EAS sample.
Businesses were only eligible for selection in EAS (the direct collect sample) if their turnover exceeded a threshold level, or the business was identified as being an employing business (based on ATO information), as at the end of the reference period. Turnover thresholds were set for each ANZSIC class so that the contribution of surveyed businesses accounted for approximately 85% of total industry class turnover as determined by BAS data. A sample of 18,239 businesses was selected for the directly collected part of the 2024-25 EAS. Each business was asked to provide data sourced primarily from financial statements. Businesses were also asked to supply key details of their operations by state and territory, enabling production of the state/territory estimates.
Businesses which met neither of these criteria are referred to as 'micro non-employing businesses'. For these units, BAS data were obtained and annualised, then used to model employment, income and expenses which were added to the directly collected estimates to produce the statistics in this release. For more information on improvements of the methodology used for producing the estimates for micro non-employing businesses, please refer to the processing the data section.
Processing the data
Industry performance measures
This release presents a wide range of data that can be used to analyse business and industry performance.
Businesses report in the EAS according to Australian accounting standards applying at the time of reporting, leading to differences in reporting over time as standards are updated. In addition, differences in accounting policy and practices across businesses and industries can lead to some inconsistencies in the data input to the Australian Industry statistics. Although much of the accounting process is subject to standards, there is still a great deal of flexibility left to individual managers and accountants through the accounting policies and practices they adopt. For example, the way profit is measured is affected by management policy about such issues as depreciation rates, bad debt provisions and write off, and goodwill write off. The varying degree to which businesses consolidate their accounts may also affect any industry performance measures calculated.
A range of performance measures, usually referred to as ratios, can be produced from the data available from businesses' financial statements. The performance measures presented in this publication comprise:
- Profitability ratios, which measure rates of profit on sales.
- Debt ratios, which indicate the ability of businesses to meet the cost of debt financing.
- Investment ratios, which indicate the capacity of business to invest in capital assets.
- Labour measures, which relate to output, labour costs and employment.
The above limitations are not meant to imply that analysis based on these data should be avoided, only that they should be borne in mind when interpreting the data presented in this publication.
Definitions for the data presented can also be found in the Glossary.
Effects of rounding
Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between totals and the sums of the component items. Proportions, ratios and other calculated figures shown in this publication have been calculated using un-rounded estimates and may be different from, but are more accurate than, calculations based on the rounded estimates.
Revisions
Estimates for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 reference years have been revised since the previous issue of this publication. The revisions result from the review of new information received from the businesses in the direct collect sample. The revisions are incorporated in this release and in associated data cubes available free online. Note that the extent of revisions may differ for individual industries and/or between data items.
Estimation methodology
The availability of Business Activity Statement (BAS) data collected by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has provided the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) with opportunities to improve the efficiency of collection designs and estimation for its business surveys, while at the same time reducing the reporting burden placed on businesses.
Under taxation law, data may be passed by the Commissioner for Taxation to the ABS for specified statistical purposes. Accordingly, turnover and wages information sourced from ATO BAS data were used to improve the accuracy of the 2024-25 industry estimates which were produced using data items collected directly by the ABS from businesses.
Generalised regression methodology
State and territory estimates
Finer level manufacturing industry estimates
Off-June adjusted estimates
Data release
Data comparability with other ABS statistics
In some cases estimates in this release may differ slightly from those from other sources. These differences may be the result of sampling or non-sampling error, or may result from differences in scope, coverage, definitions or methodology.
Use of Australian Taxation office (ATO) data in this publication
The results of these statistics are based, in part, on tax data supplied by the ATO to the ABS under the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 which requires that such data are only used for statistical purposes. No individual information collected under the Census and Statistics Act 1905 is provided back to the ATO for administrative or regulatory purposes. Any discussion of data limitations or weaknesses is in the context of using the data for statistical purposes, and is not related to the ability of the data to support the ATO's core operational requirements.
Legislative requirements to ensure privacy and secrecy of these data have been followed. Only people authorised under the Australian Bureau of Statistics Act 1975 have been permitted to view data about any particular business and/or person in conducting these analyses. No information about individual taxpayers (persons) has been released to the ABS. Aggregated personal income tax data are confidentialised by the ATO before release to the ABS. In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, results have been confidentialised to ensure that they are not likely to enable identification of a particular person or organisation.
Reliability of estimates
Accuracy
The ABS aims to produce high quality data from its industry collections while minimising the reporting burden on businesses. To achieve this, extensive effort is put into survey and questionnaire design, collection procedures and processing.
Two types of error can occur in estimates that are based on a sample survey: sampling error and non-sampling error.
Sampling error
Sampling error occurs when a sample, rather than the entire population, is surveyed. It reflects the difference between estimates based on a sample and those that would have been obtained had a census been conducted. One measure of this difference is the standard error. There are about two chances in three that a sample estimate will differ by less than one standard error from the figure that would have been obtained if all businesses had been included in the survey, and about nineteen chances in twenty that the difference will be less than two standard errors.
Another measure of sampling error is the relative standard error (RSE), which is obtained by expressing the standard error as a percentage of the estimate to which it refers. The relative standard error is a useful measure in that it provides an immediate indication of the sampling error in percentage terms, and this avoids the need to refer also to the size of the estimate. Selected data item RSEs at the industry division level for Australia are shown in the table below. Detailed relative standard errors are available on request.
To illustrate, the estimate of total income for Mining in 2024-25 was $478,273m. The RSE of this estimate is shown as 0.4%, giving a standard error of approximately $1,913m. Therefore, there are two chances in three that, if all units had been included in the survey, a figure in the range of $476,360m to $480,186m would have been obtained, and nineteen chances in twenty (i.e. a confidence interval of 95%) that the figure would have been within the range of $474,523m to $482,023m.
The size of the RSE may be a misleading indicator of the reliability of the estimates for (a) operating profit before tax, (b) earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and (c) industry value added. It is possible for an estimate to legitimately include positive and negative values, reflecting the financial performance of individual businesses. In this case, the aggregated estimate can be small relative to the contribution of individual businesses, resulting in a standard error which is large relative to the estimate.
| Employment | Wages | Sales and service income | Income | Expenses | OPBT | EBITDA | IVA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industry | % | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 3.2 | 2.9 | 3.8 | 3.6 | 4 | 20 | 11.2 | 6.8 |
| Mining | 1 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.4 |
| Manufacturing | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 5.8 | 3.6 | 1.3 |
| Electricity, gas, water and waste services | 3.6 | 3 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 8.6 | 3.7 | 2.5 |
| Construction | 2.1 | 2 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 5.4 | 5.4 | 2.6 |
| Wholesale trade | 2.1 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 5.9 | 6.1 | 2.5 |
| Retail trade | 1.6 | 1 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.9 | 5.6 | 4.1 | 1.8 |
| Accommodation and food services | 3.8 | 1.8 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 10.3 | 8.2 | 2.7 |
| Transport, postal and warehousing | 1.8 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 4.2 | 2.2 | 1.3 |
| Information media and telecommunications | 1.9 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 8 | 2.5 | 1.2 |
| Auxiliary finance and insurance services | 3.5 | 2 | 2.7 | 2.4 | 2.5 | 6.2 | 8.2 | 3.3 |
| Rental, hiring and real estate services | 2.9 | 2.1 | 2 | 2.2 | 2.5 | 5.8 | 3.4 | 2.5 |
| Professional, scientific and technical services | 2.1 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 2.4 | 13.4 | 10.2 | 2.4 |
| Administrative and support services | 3.4 | 2 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 9.9 | 9.1 | 2.1 |
| Public administration and safety (private) | 4.8 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 16.1 | 16.2 | 3.6 |
| Education and training (private) | 3.4 | 2.6 | 2.4 | 3.1 | 2.4 | 37 | 8 | 2.7 |
| Health care and social assistance (private) | 1.9 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 7.6 | 7.2 | 1.8 |
| Arts and recreation services | 4.2 | 2.1 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 7.9 | 7.9 | 2.7 |
| Other services | 2.7 | 1.8 | 2.1 | 1.9 | 2 | 7.3 | 16 | 2.1 |
| Total | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 1.2 | 0.5 |
Non-sampling error
Non-sampling error arises from inaccuracies in collecting, recording and processing the data. Every effort was made to minimise reporting error, by the careful design of questionnaires, intensive training of survey analysts, and efficient data processing procedures. The imprecision due to non-sampling variability cannot be quantified and should not be confused with sampling variability, which is measured by the standard error.
Differences in accounting policy and practices across businesses and industries can also lead to some inconsistencies in the data provided to compile the estimates. Although much of the accounting process is subject to standards, there remains a great deal of flexibility available to individual businesses in the accounting policies and practices they adopt.
The above limitations are not meant to imply that analysis based on these data should be avoided, only that the limitations should be considered when interpreting the data. This publication presents a wide range of data that can be used to analyse business and industry performance. It is important that any analysis be based upon the range of data presented rather than focusing on one variable.
Non-sampling error also occurs when information cannot be obtained from all businesses selected in the survey. For the 2024-25 EAS, there was an 87.7% response rate from all businesses that were surveyed and found to be operating during the reference period. Data were imputed for the remaining 12.3% of operating businesses. This imputation contributed 8.6% to the estimate of Total income for Total selected industries.
History of changes
For information about the change in treatment of government COVID-19 support payments in the EAS in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22, refer to the Data comparability section of the ABS publication: Australian Industry methodology, 2021-22 financial year.
For information about the change in treatment of government funding and sales and service income in EAS from 2020-21, refer to the Data comparability section of the ABS publication: Australian Industry methodology, 2020-21 financial year.
For information about the changes to health data from 2018-19, refer to the Data comparability section of the ABS publication: Australian Industry methodology, 2018-19 financial year.
Related information
Related releases
The following ABS releases present economy-wide and industry specific data:
- Australian System of National Accounts - Annual publication
- Business Indicators, Australia - Quarterly publication
- Private New Capital Expenditure and Expected Expenditure, Australia - Quarterly publication
- Engineering Construction Activity, Australia - Quarterly publication
- Building Activity, Australia - Quarterly publication
- Film, Television and Digital Games, Australia, 2021-22 - Irregular publication
- Information Media and Telecommunications Services, Australia, 2013-14 - Irregular publication
The national accounts estimates in Australian System of National Accounts include businesses classified to industries not in scope of the EAS. This includes current price estimates on Division K Financial and insurance services, as well as Ownership of dwellings and the General government sector. For more information on the scope of the collection for Australian Industry please refer to the data collection section above.
Other information available
On occasion the ABS conducts detailed industry surveys targeting specific industries of interest. Previous issues of Australian Industry included detailed articles and data cubes relating to the following industries:
- Arts and recreation services, 2014-15
- Professional, scientific and technical services, 2015-16
- Administrative and support services, 2016-17
- Rental, hiring and real estate services, 2016-17
- Health care and social assistance, 2018-19
- Transport, warehousing, and storage industry, 2020-21
- Construction industry, 2023-24
Additional information will be released later this year in relation to the wholesale trade and retail trade industries in 2024-25. For further information please refer to the Additional industry data 2024-25 section below.
The ABS provides a Release Calendar which details latest releases and products to be released in the next six months.
For more information about this or other related statistics, please contact us.
Additional industry data 2024-25
On occasion, the ABS collects detailed industry data targeting specific industries of interest. In 2024-25 the focus was on the Retail trade and Wholesale trade industries, with additional content collected in EAS for these industries and a stand alone survey also conducted along-side EAS, the 2024-25 Retail and Wholesale Industry Survey (RISWIS).
Additional EAS content included online sales, and more detailed service income information. RISWIS collected information on sales and costs of goods sold for products bought in and resold. The survey design, collection and estimation methodologies for RISWIS were largely the same as EAS with the following differences noted:
- Scope – business entities in scope of EAS within ANZSIC Division F, Wholesale trade, and Division G, Retail trade, excluding those in Subdivisions 38, Commission-based wholesaling, Class 4320, Retail commission-based buying and/or selling, and micro non-employing businesses.
- Sample - a sample of 5,041 businesses were selected and a response rate of 85.2% achieved from businesses surveyed and found to be operating. Data were imputed for the remaining 14.8% of operating businesses.
- Reference period – the reference period covered by the collection was, in general, the 12 months ended 30 June 2025.Where businesses were unable to supply information on this basis, an accounting period for which data could be provided was used. ‘Off-June’ adjusted estimates are not available for RISWIS.
- Timing – RISWIS was run alongside EAS. Estimates will be available in late 2026 within 18 months of the reference period.
Glossary
Data presented in this release have been compiled from the standard financial accounts of businesses. Therefore, the definition of each reported item aligns closely with that adopted in standard business accounting practice. Included in the glossary are published data items and components used to calculate derived items.