Chapter 23 Thematic accounts

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Australian System of National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods
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Edition 8

Introduction

23.1    The Australian System of National Accounts (ASNA) is a fully integrated, economically complete and internally consistent framework. However, as it only provides limited disaggregation, there are some economic questions this general framework cannot answer. To provide more in-depth insights into specific topics thematic or extended accounts can be developed.

23.2    Thematic and extended accounts are linked to, but distinct from, the ASNA. They allow an expansion of the national accounts for selected areas of interest while maintaining the concepts and structures of the core national accounts. 

The 2008 edition of the System of National Accounts (SNA) refers to satellite accounts. The terminology has changed with the development of 2025 SNA. They are now referred to as thematic or extended accounts. This updated terminology will be used throughout this chapter, except when referencing published accounts with satellite in their name.

23.3    Thematic and extended accounts capture further detail on specific activities that lack visibility in the broader national accounts including:

  • Thematic accounts - disaggregate and rearrange the items in the integrated ASNA
  • Extended accounts - expand the boundaries of the integrated framework to give a different perspective or a more complete view of a topic.

23.4    Thematic accounts focus on specific topics. They thereby provide greater visibility and detail without changing the underlying concepts or boundaries of the ASNA. They usually rearrange the granular data into alternative aggregations and classifications but can also provide more detailed breakdowns or information on related activities.  Examples include tourism or digital economy accounts, or environmental protection expenditure accounts.

23.5    Extended accounts cover well-being and sustainability concepts beyond the ASNA production boundary. They expand or modify the integrated framework’s boundaries for production, consumption, investment, income, assets or wealth using alternative concepts. They may also include indicators beyond the framework’s standard boundary. It does this while retaining internal consistency (e.g. total supply must still equal total use). Examples include valuations of unpaid household work or volunteering activity using an expanded production boundary. 

23.6    The System of Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA) is a complementary framework that includes a series of thematic and extended accounts to help measure sustainability. The SEEA Central Framework (SEEA-CF) therefore presents the following information in natural resource accounts:

  • physical and monetary values
  • impacts on the environment (extended accounts)
  • expenditures to mitigate environmental impacts (thematic accounts).

The SEEA Ecosystem Accounting extends the asset and production boundaries to recognise ecosystem assets and services.  

23.7    The ABS has produced several thematic accounts over two decades including:  

23.8    In addition, the ABS has maintained an environmental statistics program since the early 1990s, when it began recording in the national balance sheet the value of those environmental assets falling within the SNA asset boundary. The environmental-economic accounts program has expanded markedly over the last twenty years. In particular, accounts related to water and energy have improved in their extent, quality, and frequency. Experimental accounts have been released in respect of land cover and national land, and ecosystems and ocean accounts. 

23.9    The rest of this chapter provides more detail on thematic and extended accounts that have recently been produced by the ABS.