The Australian Data Archive

The Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) was commissioned by the Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department to conduct a study of the nature of elder abuse and the extent to which it occurs among those in the Australian population aged 65 and over.

The study included two cross sectional surveys/datasets. (1) The Survey of Older People (SOP): a survey of 7,000 people aged 65 and over who live in the community (i.e. those who are not in residential aged care settings). The survey will examine experiences of elder abuse among this population. (2) The Survey of the General Community (SGC): a survey of 3,500 people aged 18–64 years which will focus on knowledge of elder abuse, attitudes to older people and the extent to which participants in the survey provide assistance to older people.

Data was drawn from each survey to better understand the experiences of older Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) people in Australia. This aspect of the research provides insight into the prevalence and characteristics of abuse of older CALD people, as well as the contexts in which the abuse occurs and how their experiences of abuse may differ from the general population.

Journeys Home: A Longitudinal Study of Factors Affecting Housing Stability was a national survey of Australians who were either homeless or at high risk of becoming homeless. Data collection commenced in September 2011 with a further five waves of data collected approximately six months apart. Journeys Home was funded by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), and run by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at The University of Melbourne. Roy Morgan Research (RMR) was sub-contracted to undertake the fieldwork. It was designed as a tool for enabling research that would improve understanding of the pathways into and out of homelessness in Australia and the consequences of homelessness for long-term outcomes.

Three different data releases will be available, depending on your research requirements and location. These releases are General, Restricted, and International. In the General and International releases some variables (such as location, industry and debt) are confidentialised. The International release also limits some income related variables.

The Rural-Urban Migration in China project was established to investigate the impacts of internal migration within China and Indonesia. In particular, the investigation is focused on the collection of data through five year longitudinal surveys in China and Indonesia and the use of these data to answer questions with relation to migration’s impact on income mobility, poverty alleviation, education, health and nutrition of migrant children, and the assimilation of migrant workers into the city. You can find out more about this project at the project web page.