Who can access AusStats?
What is AusStats?
Finding data in AusStats
Using the AusStats navigator
Using expandable lists
Using links to other products
ABS catalogue numbers
Searching in AusStats
Refining your search
Online help

Printable version .pdf

Who can access AusStats?

AusStats is available to Australian University students and staff, under a special agreement between the Australian Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) and the ABS. Special conditions apply and University users should read the Terms and Conditions of Use prior to searching AusStats.

What is AusStats?

AusStats is a subscriber service, which forms the statistical core of the ABS Web site. In addition to the freely available information on the site from Summary Information (Main Features), AusStats provides access to a large amount of data, which includes:

• Over 2,000 spreadsheets.
• All ABS publications from 1998 onwards in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf).
• Multi-dimensional matrices of data in SuperTABLE format.
• Census Basic Community Profiles to the Statistical Local Area (SLA) level in .XLS format.
• Freely available material on the ABS Web site, including the popular Australia Now and Main Features pages.

Finding data in AusStats

There are many ways to find data in AusStats:

• The navigator at the left hand side of the AusStats screen can help you to move around the different types of products available.
• Within each product page is a section of links to related products.
• A search facility is available.

Using the AusStats navigator

At the left hand side of the screen is a navigator that allows you to view the various types of data in AusStats. Statistical files are included under the 'Publications & Data' item, then sorted by the document or file type (publications, main features, spreadsheets, datasets, Census Community Profiles, Australia Now). Many of these are available sorted by release date or by Catalogue Number/Subject.

If you are looking for information on a topic, the Subject/Catalogue pages are useful. These initially display products according to subject groupings, then by catalogue number.

If you are looking for a file that you know has been released recently, or you know the date of release, you can use the Release Information/Recent Releases page. If you also know that you are looking for a particular product type (publication, spreadsheet), you can use the 'Publications & Data/Product Type/By Release Date'.

Using expandable lists

Where lists of topics are categorised we have presented them as expandable lists. When the topic is collapsed, it has an image next to it that looks like this indicating that topics exist below it in an hierarchical structure. Note that clicking on the text will not activate the expansion - you need to click on the graphic, which will look like this when the list is expanded. Using this method will expand one section of the list at a time - if you wish to expand the entire list, use the Expand All option. Similarly, use the Collapse All option to collapse the list.

Using links to other products

Once you are in a page for a particular product, at the bottom of the page is a section with a number of links. There are 2 main types of links:

• The link headings (Main Features, Publications, Catalogue etc) link to a page containing a listing of all issues of that product (eg. all publications).
• The subheadings link to specific issues of related products such as previous publications, a listing of available spreadsheets, specific media releases or relevant Australia Now articles. If there is no entry in this section, there are no products available.

ABS catalogue numbers

ABS publications, products and services have a 5-digit number known as the ABS Catalogue number, which uniquely identifies each title.

• The first digit indicates the broad subject group.
• The second digit indicates the more precise subject subgroup.
• The third and fourth digits are allocated by ABS with no significant meaning.
• The fifth digit (always following the full stop) indicates the state or territory covered by the statistics.

Information in the ABS Catalogue and AusStats are arranged in catalogue number order and it is possible to search for specific data using this number.

Searching in AusStats

There are search options available, Quick Search and Advanced Search

• Quick search is available from the ABS Home Page and only searches in the 'Themes' and 'AusStats' parts of the ABS web site
• Advanced search allows entry of additional search criteria, specification of layout options (eg sorting and number of results). It allows searching of the whole ABS web site, or just specified parts.

Refining your search

You can refine your search results by using the following in your search terms:

• tourism business - searches for the phrase.
• "tourism business" - searches for the phrase.
• tourism AND business - searches for both words anywhere in the document.
• tourism OR business - searches for either of the words.
• tourism AND NOT business - searches for documents that contain the first word, but exclude the second.
• tour* - use the * for a wildcard in the word. This would return documents with tour, tourism, tourist etc.

Online help

AusStats provides extensive online help at:
http://www.abs.gov.au/