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.id community monthly newsletter
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May 2012
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Greetings!
A powerful way of understanding places is through the 'demographic lens'.
Why? Because, we largely and increasingly operate in an 'evidence-based decision making' paradigm, we rely on the process of converting data to information to knowledge to make informed decisions.
Demographic data is extensive, readily available, of a high quality, has excellent time series; is regularly updated - it is the Census! The numbers represent people DIRECTLY. Collectively the data represents communities and the observations and trends from the data directly reflect SOCIETY.
Looking through the demographic lens provides insights based on evidence of yesterday - today - and tomorrow.
The 'tomorrow' part however is the trickiest. As any scientist or social scientist will know, it's one thing to observe, record and analyse the past and present; it requires all that knowledge to be able to forecast the future.
Intuitively planners and service providers like to access forecasts because they can use the numbers as a basis for planning for the future, setting spatial budgets - where to invest when etc.
However, the PROCESS of forecasting is just as valuable as accessing the numbers. It is the process that reveals a deep understanding of the changing role and function of places. The discipline of making assumptions about the future is one of the best ways for planners to understand what is driving change in their place and how policy can influence housing, economic, social and demographic outcomes.
Looking at broad demographic trends as revealed by the past and present enables us to confidently forecast what is likely to happen in future - and is revealing some interesting facts that we are excited to test when the 2011 Census results are released in a matter of weeks.
Sincerely,
Ivan |
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Focus on Local Government
Sydney's population - a story of consolidation
Sydney, Australia's largest city and oldest European settlement, is also known as Australia's world city, and the "city of cities".
It is the entry point of most new migrants to Australia, has the busiest airport in Australia, and iconic locations like the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.
This post looks at Sydney's 2011 population, how it has changed and what the future holds for Sydney.
read more..
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 Census countdown Scrap the Census? You have to be kidding, right? I was recently forwarded an article published on the BBC website, which outlined calls by the Conservative Government in the UK to scrap the Census in its current format.
The premise of their argument is that it has become too expensive and that the data can be obtained from other sources. Having worked with Census data for many years, I've certainly come across this argument many times. But how true is this? Can the data be obtained elsewhere? And can the argument come down to mere dollars?
Let's have a closer look at some of the issues.
read more.. |
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Spotlight on NZ
Wanganui's baby blues?
The impact of service delivery on population outcomes
I recently spent time in this soulful and very beautiful part of New Zealand training with staff and community groups. Wanganui District Council and the wider community were grappling with a difficult issue. The District Health Board had proposed shifting some of Wanganui's local Child and Maternal Health Care services to Palmerston North, some 45 minutes away. The local newspaper was running headlines on it, and it was the old story of centralisation versus local services. What are the broader implications when local services are discontinued?
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inside .id
Cartoongraphy?
For years we've been trying different ways of portraying exactly what it is that we do and how it can help.
We've attended countless conferences and put hours of thought into the displays at our stand. Invariably people look at our banners, then look at us and ask - "So what do you do?"
We decided it was time to stop taking ourselves so seriously... and to hire a cartooonist.
His brief - to illustrate the tricky situations councils can find themselves in when they don't have access to demogra[hic information. We ended up with a book(let)!
Have a look at what we came up with here. Can you relate to any of these situations? We'd love to hear your thoughts. Or better still, send us a scenario and we'll select one for our cartoonist to turn into a picture for you.
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A word from our researchers
Generations X and Y - what's in a letter?
Last month we looked at the baby boomers, those born in the post-war baby boom, and discovered that it actually started well before the end of World War II. This article looks at the generations which came after them, commonly known as generation X and generation Y, and asks "Have we gone too far in assigning letters to generations?" The term "generations" often gets used these days, and the difference between people of different ages is attributed to when they were born, and which letter of the alphabet has been assigned to them (X, Y etc). read more.. | |
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 Tips and Tricks
How do I get that chart into my report?
One of the questions we get asked most often at .id training sessions is how to get the data, charts and text out of the .id websites and into your working documents and presentations.
This article will step you through it.
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 Final word How the Census drove the development of modern computing Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. This has never been more true than in the case if the US Census of the late 1800's, which in many ways set the wheels in motion for the development of the modern computer.
Firstly, the Census for any country of a significant size creates a massive amount of data, which takes a considerable time to check, process and analyse.
Problems for the US Census began when the population of the USA increased markedly from 1870 to 1880, from 38m to over 50m.
Being a census, that meant over 50 million information sheets had to be created, collected, sorted and tabulated - all without the aid of any computing power. read more..
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Quick Contact
+61 3 9417 2205
NZ Freecall : 0800 955 481
info@id.com.au
10 Easey Street, PO Box 1689, Collingwood
Victoria 3066, Australia
www.id.com.au
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