This month: 2021 Census of Population and Housing, vehicles in Australia, VET and younger people in residential aged care.

Statistics releases in August

If you are interested in any of the forthcoming releases or datasets, please contact the Parliamentary Library to discuss in more detail.

Note: Release dates may be subject to change without notice.

What’s new

Motor Vehicle Census (ABS)

• Did you know . . .

For the first time, the national fleet passes 20 million vehicles, reaching 20.1 million as at 31 January 2021. Registrations of electric vehicles surged in 2021, with 23,128 registrations compared to 14,253 in 2020.

Toyota was the most popular make in Australia with 3.0 million vehicles registered in 2021. Holden continues to hold onto second place (notwithstanding the ending of the Holden brand in Australian in December 2020) ahead of Mazda in third and Hyundai has moved into 4th place, replacing Ford which saw another annual decrease in registrations, this year by 4.8 per cent.

Vocational education and training (National Centre for Vocational Education Research)

• Did you know . . .

In 2020, 1.2 million students were enrolled in government-funded vocational education and training (VET) in Australia, an increase of 3.5% compared to 2019. An estimated 7.0% of the Australian resident population aged 15 to 64 years participated in government-funded VET in 2020. Participation was highest among those aged 15 to 19 years (at 18.4%).

In 2020, the highest number of government-funded nationally recognised qualification enrolments were in certificate III at 515 100 (47.4%) followed by certificate IV (19.1%) and certificate II (14.8%).

Apprentices and trainees, VET in Schools; VET student outcomes

Younger people in residential aged care (AIHW)

• Did you know . . .

As at 31 March 2021, there were 4,106 people aged under 65 living in permanent residential aged care. The majority (58%) of younger people living in permanent residential aged care were aged 60–64, nearly 4 in 10 (39%) were aged 45–59, and 3% were aged 18–44. The average length of stay was 4 years and 4 months for younger people who were living in permanent residential aged care.

Younger people living in residential aged care often have multiple health conditions. In 2019-20 among younger people in residential aged care whose health conditions were known:

• 64% had mental and behavioural disorders
• 38% had diseases of the circulatory system
• 33% had diseases of the nervous system
• 32% had endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic disorders

Statistical Insights: Consumption shifts and inflation measurement during COVID-19 (OECD)

The Statistical Insights piece examines the extent of the changes in the expenditure weights (expenditure weights measure the consumer expenditure shares in a base year and are updated at the beginning of each year) between 2019 and 2020 and the effect of these changes on the measurement of 2020 CPI inflation for individual countries. Dataset by country

Statistics of the month

Census of Population and Housing

Every five years, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) counts every person and household in Australia. This is called the Census of Population and Housing. The Census is the most comprehensive snapshot of the country and tells the story of how we are changing. It includes around 10 million households and over 25 million people. Census data tells us about the economic, social and cultural make-up of the country. The Census includes everyone in Australia, Norfolk Island, the Territories of Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island. This includes international visitors and students.

The next Census is on the 10th of August 2021.

Data from the Census is used extensively by the Parliamentary Library, particularly analysis by Commonwealth Electoral Division. Below are three examples of how census results can be used by electorate. Data is from the 2016 Census and the boundaries are as at 2019.

Table 1: median age—top 10, bottom 10 by Commonwealth Electoral Divisions

Table 2: percent of persons born overseas—top 10, bottom 10 by Commonwealth Electoral Divisions 

Table 3: percent of one parent families with children under 15 years—top 10, bottom 10 by Commonwealth Electoral Divisions

Interested in finding out what the latest statistics are telling us about the Australian economy and population?

Each month the Parliamentary Library will publish a Flag Post listing new reports on a wide variety of topics. The list will include important upcoming releases from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) as well as other research organisations and government departments.