Like other government agencies, national statistics agencies have
been working out how to do more with their limited resources. For most agencies,
the largest and most expensive statistical collection is the Census, a comprehensive
count of population and data on age, sex, education, household composition and
finances, dwellings, employment and journey-to-work, indigenous status and
languages spoken at home, and more. The most recent Australian Census in 2016 cost
$500 million and could be done online for the first time, with the next one in
2021 being redesigned in expectation of the great majority of forms being
completed online. It is conducted every five years and the data is available free
from the ABS website.
A new report from Lateral Economics Valuing
the Australian Census has looked at how Census data is used in a wide
range of industries and come up with estimates for the value created: “Census
data has a contributing role to a wide range of policy decisions and private
sector decisions across a range of sectors. Census data can also have a more
formal role as a direct input to resource allocation. This includes funding
formulas and allocations in government, and drawing electoral boundaries.” The relevance of such locational, demographic and building stock data to the built emvironment sector is obvious, with infrastructure, real estate and planning providing many of the examples.
The report makes some broad economic estimates of the value of
these uses, finding the Census delivers $6 of value for every $1 of costs. The
methodology builds on previous efforts in the UK and US. Lateral Economics
found the annual value produced was $666 million, with another $166m added for
general use (including research and teaching), for a total of $832m.
Built environment related expenditure is the majority of this. Infrastructure in general and health and transport in particular accounted for half the total, and a broad catagory of Other Commercial Uses another $100m. The other uses examined are Locational decisions and market research, real estate advisory, insurance and community organisations.
“The clear conclusion we have reached from our research and consultations
across the Australian public and private sectors is that the Australian Census
plays a critical role in building evidence and decision making to improve the
efficiency, effectiveness, fairness and integrity of Australia’s economic and
social infrastructure. Public sector agencies – particularly at the state level
which rely on the Census to provide data for small areas and disadvantaged groups
– have built up a vast array of models to inform their service delivery and
infrastructure decisions based on the five-yearly Census data.
Additionally, demographers and social researchers have come to rely
on the Census as providing an in-depth examination of how the Australian
population is changing…. Because it is comprehensive and accessible, Census
data is influential in helping commercial and other sectors understand the size
and nature of markets, which influences many locational and other resource
allocation decisions.
This report’s quantitative analysis provides an indicative
estimate in the order of $6 of value for every $1 of costs, on the basis of assumptions
made and taking into account additional value due to the ‘long tail’ of further
widely distributed uses across the Australian community. In general, the
Australian community’s collective effort every five years to undertake the
Census is more than worth it.”
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Lateral Economics is also responsible for the Australian Wellbeing
Index, which adds census data like education, health and the environment to economic
data like GDP and employment. Canada and New Zealand have similar indexes,
developed in response to criticisms that GDP, national income and GDP per
capita are too narrow measures of social welfare. The 2019 update
came out earlier this year. The index has been flat for the last three years.
