Statistical Developments in Australia

Australian statistical procedures have changed markedly over the past two decades or so. This is true of the organization of the statistical agencies, the major sources of the official statistics and also of the nature of the statistics collected. While the many changes have been documented in diverse official sources, the question of providing an overview of the current situation in one readily accessible source has been sadly neglected. This paper is directed at this deficiency and is divided into Five sections. Section One traces the evolution of the present day Australian statistical organization, Section Two gives the functions of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Section Three provides information on the major sources of Australian statistics. Section Four discusses the merits of frequently published data. Finally, section Five provides comments on some major (topical) Australian economic and business statistics. © 1981 Economic Society of Australia (Queensland) Inc