More Census 2011 data online

The adoption of Creative Commons data licensing by federal as well State governments put in public domain vast amounts of free and very useful data.  There was a time that Australian Census statistics in an interactive format (ie. as maps and tables) was available only to a selected few with very deep pockets. But these days the Australian Bureau of Statistics disseminates the data at a minimal cost to users. This led to proliferation of applications and tools incorporating Census data – some presenting just basic information for general public but others also allowing for some analysis of the data.

One of more interesting and novel ways of presenting Census 2011 data was developed by id.com.au - a company which focuses on regional economic analysis for councils and local governments. Creation of a profile with Census statistics relevant for a particular region can be quite costly for individual councils but once these are published, the public have free access to quite extensive set of information, and in a very user friendly format.

Users can interact with the information online but also download selected items as tables, images or even full reports for offline perusal. Information is available in two flavours: as profiles or as atlases (the key difference is how the information is presented because content is almost identical Census 2011 data). Only a partial coverage of Australia is available from id.com.au website because those applications are funded by individual councils.


More on Census 2011 data and apps