Administrative income comparison studies

Latest release

Data sources and methods used to create administrative income for comparison with the Survey of Income and Housing and the Census

Cite
Reference period
2019-20, 2021
Released
30/10/2025
Next release Unknown
First release
Release date and time
30/10/2025 11:30am AEDT

Introduction

This paper describes the data sources and methods used to create new estimates of income from administrative (admin) income data.

These methods are developed to support comparisons of admin income statistics with those from the Survey of Income and Housing (SIH) 2019-20, and the Census of Population and Housing, 2021.

These comparisons help to improve understanding of how admin-based income data aligns with official income statistics.

Results from these comparisons are available in New insights on administrative income data.

The ABS has previously released admin-based income estimates in the Census of Population and Housing 2021. This paper presents updated estimation methods that use newer admin data sources. As such, outputs are not directly comparable to the earlier estimates. Methods described here may also be updated in the future in response to changes in data sources, or further developments in statistical techniques.

What is administrative data?

 

This paper begins by describing how the ABS prepares income statistics. This information supports how admin-based estimates of income are prepared. Next, the data sources used in these studies are presented, accompanied by a discussion of aspects of their data features and quality. Finally, a detailed description of how estimates were created from admin data sources is presented.