Census data is vital to planning, the nation’s peak planning body says.
The future of regular national census surveys is in doubt, with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in favour of more frequent methods of collecting population data, which it said would be accurate.
The ABS was committed to the census, Australian Statistician David Kalisch said.
"However, the Census in its current form only provides a snapshot of Australia on one day every five years, and it takes some time for key information to be released after Census night," he said.
"The ABS has been considering options for transforming our people statistics for some time...The ABS sees significant value in better and more frequent data."
The ABS has put forward a number of proposals for the census' frequency, including every 10 years.
The government was sticking to their statement regarding the uncertainty for Australia's census, which turned 100 years old in 1911.
“The government and the Bureau of Statistics are consulting with a wide range of stakeholders about the best methods to deliver high quality, accurate and timely information on the social and economic condition of Australian households,” a spokesperson from Kelly O’Dwyer’s office said in a statement this morning.
The population data collected in the census was vital for town planners, Planning Institute of Australia chief executive Kirsty Kelly said.
A range of organisations use the census data for their work.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies uses census data, but does not rely on the census data, deputy director of research, Daryl Higgins said.
The Productivity Commission regularly uses population data from the five yearly census, but declined to comment.
ABS census data was used to produce SBS Census Explorer, which is a collection of data visualisations based on the 2011 census.
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