Northern Population Matters 2016 Census of Population and Housing Tuesday 9 August 2016 Tony Grubb Census Director Northern Australia

What is the Census of Population and Housing? • A count of, and detailed information about, every person in Australia on Census night and the dwellings in which they are staying. • Seventeenth National Census in 2016, every five years since 1961 and dating back to 1911. • 61 questions (all compulsory except religion), covering 45 topics that are prescribed in Census Regulations. • 96.5% response rate in 2011.

Census of Population & Housing 100 year tradition

10 million households

24 million people

40,000 employees

Up to 20 million items posted

98.3% population coverage

Over 1.5 million phone calls

Media coverage reaches 183 million

Circumnavigated globe 13 times

97% public awareness

3,500 kg of ink and 13,500 litres of glue

Census promoted in over 70 languages

Scan 88 million pages of data

7 years in the making

Process 3 trillion cells of data

Why run a Census of Population and Housing? • Basis of population estimates which are used for

• number of representatives in Parliament & electoral boundaries • distribution of GST funding and grants

• Analysis and comparison of small areas and small population groups for policy, planning, evaluation and social and business research. • Unlocking the power of other data sets through data integration – for example linkages with health, migration and education data to provide in-depth and longitudinal insights. • ABS’ most popular data set - 500 newspaper articles in first quarter – millions of web site visitors.

Public feedback (before we embarked on operations….) • • • • • • • • • • • •

Sex / Gender Same sex marriages and sexual orientation Privacy and retention of names/addresses, data integration Unmet need - no change topics - health conditions and service populations – veterans, pets, vegetarianism/diet Religion - no religion, Islam Ancestry – Serbian, Tamil, Australian South Sea Islanders Digital exclusion Cost of Census Interviewer Household Form in Remote Communities Data security Frequency of Census Quality concerns – undercounts, digital bias, longer enumeration

Census 2011 – a traditional Census

Person response rate up Net undercount reduced Online response triples Remote Area Mobile Teams

45,000 non-ongoing employees Knock, knock… Most expensive Census ever

Inconsistent response rates https://unsplash.com/

Challenges

• Great response overall, but lower response rate for…

• Young people (especially men) • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (especially urban population) • Some migrant communities

• Increasing size of population and number of dwellings, driving increases in cost and number of field staff • Social changes – including secure apartment buildings and no one at home. • NT specific

• Transient populations, tourist season, remote, discrete communities, cultural, language, FIFO, mining impacts • Logistics!

2016 Census - a digital approach

Delivery of Census forms 80% Mail out online access codes

20% Drop off

Return 65+% Online form returns

<35% Paper mail back

Follow up 50% homes with no visits

50% homes with 1 to 5 visits

2016 Census - a digital approach • • • • • •

A saving of over $100 million compared to the traditional Census Reduction in time spent by households completing the Census. Reduction in paper used by over 300,000 kg. Release of data earlier than ever before. Data is of a higher quality. Changes tested thoroughly since 2011.

Census Phases Preparation phase

Approach phase

Reminder phase

Visit phase

(up to July 2015)

(July 25 to Aug 9)

(Aug 9 to Aug 25)

(Aug 25 to Sep 25)

Recruitment

Mail out internet access details with opt out to paper (70%)

Send reminder letters

Standard home visits

Engagement

Mail out internet access details and paper form (10%)

Hand deliver reminder letters

Geo-target PR

System Preparation

Visit and hand deliver materials (20%)

Send unaddressed mail (post cards)

Intensive home visits

Planning

PR Campaign & Census Inquiry Service

Start early visits

Extend visit period

Northern Australia Staff

Northern Australian Census Office

Local Engagement Managers

Area Supervisors

Census Field Officers

District Managers

Remote Area Mobile Team Leaders

Remote Area Mobile Team Members

Community Facilitators

Census Field Interviewers

• 30 staff in Darwin (in place) • 8 Local Engagement Managers (in place) • 10 District Managers (in place) • 30 Area Supervisors (recruitment underway) • 60 Remote Area Mobile Team Leaders (recruitment underway) • 150 Remote Area Mobile Team Members (recruitment underway) • 400 Community Facilitators • 500 Census field officers (recruitment in May 2016) • 1,000 Census field interviewers (recruitment in May 2016)

Our Northern Australia focus • Cascading engagement • Complimenting centralised media/PR and targeted strategies • Value and pursue local employment • Listening • ABS Round Table, Community Leaders, Tos, Service Providers • Well executed targeted strategies

Northern Australia Census Strategies

Mail out, online first

Mail out, paper or online

Drop off, paper or online

Homeless Interviewing

Secure Apartment Buildings

Non-Private Dwellings

Specific population groups

Fly-in / fly-out workers

Remote Area Mobile Teams

Community Interviewing

Remote travellers

Defence Mines Pastoral properties

Reflections • Field staff retention • GARMA • PR challenges, naturally… • Digital opportunities for Remote Area collection in 2021 • Australian Population Survey • opportunities

Questions?

Get online on Census 9 pitch • Default option - available to all. • Developed and hosted by IBM (also hosted online form in 2011 and 2006) • Designed to work on any device (smartphone, tablet or desktop) and any connection (even dial-up). • Faster, quicker and smarter than 2011.

Smartphone 8%

Tablet 14%

Personal computer 78%

Online Form - continued... • In partnership with IBM and building on 2011 –

redundancy for hardware failures communicate with telcos and internet service providers security design, reviews, testing and monitoring rigorously tested by both IBM and by independent companies major test of 100,000 households in 2014 expected volumes have been accurately modelled through analysis of the 2011 Census and test results. • Census night is 9th August, but online form available from 25th July to 25th September. Peak day volume is under 50% of the total. • Peak of 2.9m form submissions on Census day, an increase from 1.5m in 2011. The solution has been designed to manage up to 4.3m form submissions. • Peak on Census night of 400,000 submissions per hour, or 111 submissions per second, whereas the Online Form has been designed and tested to manage up to 720,000 submissions per hour or 200 submissions per second. • • • • • •

Paper / Online Form