Why my household?

How will I be involved in the study?

How will I benefit from the study?

Is my involvement in this study important?

How long will the interview take?

Why do I need to be interviewed every year?

Why am I asked the same questions each year?

Must I answer every question?

Is this study voluntary?

What happens to the results of the study?

Can I see the results?

How is my privacy protected?

Who is carrying out the study?

How do I get more information?

What is the difference between the census and this study?

What if I miss a year?

To get an accurate picture of people's lives, the study needs to talk to a cross-section of the Australian population.

Because the aim of the Living in Australia study is to get a picture of how Australian households change over time, each year we return to every household that has previously participated in the study. We will be seeking another interview with all eligible members of these households.

Approximately 500 areas across Australia were selected on a probability basis in 2001. Each area contained around 200 to 250 dwellings. A Nielsen representative visited each area to list all the dwellings within the area. A random sample of dwellings was then selected from this list.

This year we are adding some additional households to the sample to ensure that all parts of the community continue to be represented in the study.

These strict statistical procedures were followed to select dwellings to ensure that the results are, as far as possible, representative of the Australian population. Therefore, we cannot replace your household with another household.

1. We will ask you questions about your life in Australia by conducting a short interview with you.

2. A Nielsen interviewer will arrange an interview with you at your home or your choice of venue.

3. We will send you a thank you gift.

4. Depending on your circumstances, we will visit each year to catch up with you.

5. You will receive feedback about findings of the study, the impact the study is having in Australia, and other Living in Australia news.

Being part of the Living in Australia study will be interesting and fun. You will have the satisfaction of knowing you are part of an important and unique study that will improve the standard of living of present and future Australians.

You will receive annual newsletters informing you about the progress of the study as well as the major findings from the study.

The Living in Australia data becomes more and more useful as we add to it each year. If we are to build an accurate picture of Australia's changing needs, we have to return to the households we began with in 2001. Your ongoing involvement and support is vital to the success of the study as every individual and family provides unique information that no-one else can give! Without you, the results cannot properly represent the needs and concerns of people like you and your family. 

For most people the interview will take up to 35 minutes to answer. Questions about the household will take about 10 minutes to complete.

You will be asked questions on a range of topics such as education, employment, retirement, income, family, and how you feel about different aspects of your life. Your interviewer will ask everyone in your household aged 15 years or older to answer these questions. One person in your household will also be asked a few questions about the household in general.

The aim of the Living in Australia study is to get a picture of how Australian households change over time.

Therefore we need to return to every household that has previously participated in the study to see what has or hasn't changed. Your ongoing involvement and support is vital to the success of the study as every individual and family provides unique information that no-one else can give. When you don't take part, the results cannot represent the factors that are important to your stage of life and your needs.

It may be that nothing in your life has changed, or that there has only been minimal change. No change is just as important as change. Whatever your situation, we want to hear about it.

Each year, your interviewer asks you a range of questions, many of which are the same as last year but some are new. You may have wondered why we repeat questions...

Take income, for example. We ask a series of questions each year about the different sources of income you might have, such as wages and salaries, business income, pensions and benefits, and investment income. These questions have not changed since the first time we asked them. The reason for this is so that we can build a consistent picture of people's income over time and how this stays the same or changes. If we were to ask different questions, we would not know what to make of any changes in the data - were they due to real differences in income or simply because we changed the questions or a mixture of both?

Having asked the same income questions of the same people over time in the Living in Australia study, researchers can assess the financial security of different types of Australian households. There is no other data collected like this in Australia.

The proportion of households that are struggling financially each year has been reasonably steady since 2001. Knowing whether it is the same or different households over time is an important piece of the jigsaw puzzle you are helping us put together of life in Australia. Understanding the types of events or circumstances that make it more likely for someone to move into or out of financial difficulty will really assist policy makers help these Australians.

We recognise that some of the questions we ask can be uncomfortable for you for a variety of reasons, be they cultural, personal or religious.

While we would like to get everyone's input on every topic, if you would prefer not to answer a particular question then please ask your interviewer to move on to the next question or topic. This way you can continue to provide us with information on most of the important issues that we cover.

Yes, this study is voluntary. However, we hope you can help us. Your response is important in getting a complete picture and will help develop better policies for Australians. 

Australia has become part of an international move to build a strong knowledge of the needs of its people. Your participation will ensure this study continues here in Australia. The information you provide is having a long term impact on Australia’s direction. Every year that you and other households respond, the study increases in value and in its power to influence decision making.

The Parliamentary Secretary of Children and Youth Affairs, the Honourable Sussan Ley, described the importance of the Living in Australia study in evaluating social services. Ms Ley said “its great strength lies in integrating statistics with the attitudes of Australians by looking at data in the context of people’s lives.

Researchers use the data to help understand the issues for Australians in managing their lives, especially over time. The work they do with the data will be extremely important in influencing the way governments spend our tax dollars. Non-government support agencies will also be using the data to help them ensure they are providing services to the people most in need.

The Living in Australia study has been used by a number of organisations and researchers to provide information to help plan Australia’s future. Some examples of how the study has been used include:

Developing and improving services for our ageing population (The Productivity Commission)

To inform submissions to the Government by welfare and employment agencies

To understand how long work hours are affecting the wellbeing of parents and their families and what may assist these families

To understand the short and long term affects of ageing family members, those with long term illnesses, and how social services can assist them

Similar studies are carried out in Germany, Canada, USA, Britain, Israel, Sweden, Korea, Japan, Indonesia and Belgium. Australia joins the international initiative to have accurate knowledge of its people.

So far, the Living in Australia study has been referenced in over 190 newspaper articles, 130 conference papers, 60 journal articles and 60 other publications.

Articles using the results of the study are often in the press and on the radio. The results usually refer to the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia study (HILDA), as this is the research title of the project.

Some of these articles can be viewed in the Living in Australia in the News section of this web site, or ask your interviewer for a look at the copy they carry with them.

More results from the study are available in the Some Results from the Living in Australia study section of this web site.

You can also access the HILDA annual report, the HILDA statistical report and a list of research papers using the HILDA data.

HILDA statistical report:

We would like to assure you that the study has very strict guidelines to make sure that your identity is protected and the information you provide is kept in strict confidence at all times.

The people involved in the study are committed to ethical research and legally bound to ensure your information is secure. Melbourne Institute operates within the University's Ethics Giudelines. Nielsen operates under the International Code of Marketing and Social Research Practice, which has strict protocols for ensuring personal information remains entirely anonymous.

All people involved in the project must comply with the Privacy Act 1998. Your identifying information is collected for the purpose of the Living in Australia study. Access to your identifying information will be restricted to those who require it for the purpose of administering or conducting the study.

If you would like to know more about how your identity is protected, or would like further information concerning your privacy and the information you provide, please telephone Nielsen on 1800 656 670 or email livinginaustralia@nielsen.com.

For further information on privacy and confidentiality, please go to any of the links below:

The Market Research Society of Australia Code of Professional Behaviour

The Privacy Commissioner

The Market and Social Research Privacy Code (2007)

The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne leads a research group that is designing and managing the study.

The other partners in the group are the Australian Council of Educational Research and the Australian Institute of Family Studies.

The Nielsen Company, Australia's largest social research organisation, has been contracted to carry out the study interviews. Nielsen is well respected for its integrity and independence.

The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research

University of Melbourne

The Nielsen Company

Australian Council of Educational Research

Australian Institute of Family Studies

If you want to get a message to your interviewer, or get more information, please telephone 1800 656 670 or let our interviewer know when they visit you.

Should you have any concerns about the conduct of this study, you are welcome to contact the Executive Officer, Human Research Ethics, The University of Melbourne on Ph: 03 8344 2073 or Fax: 03 9437 6739.

In Australia, a census is taken every five years. The aim of the census is to accurately measure the number and certain key characteristics of the people in Australia on census night, and the dwellings in which they live.

For a census, all members of the population are studied but only a small number of key characteristics are collected. In contrast, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies gather more detailed information from only a portion (or cross-section) of the population. This information is then used to make estimates about the entire population. The size of the sample depends on the purpose of the study.

In a cross-sectional study, different respondents are selected each time the study is repeated. This provides a series of 'snapshots' of the characteristics of respondents at that particular point in time.

The Living in Australia study is a longitudinal study. Longitudinal studies involve revisiting the same respondents over several time periods. The benefit of longitudinal studies is that they allow us to build a picture of how individual and family circumstances change over time. For example, by tracing changes in income and joblessness over time for the same set of individuals, we will be able to examine transitions into and out of poverty and attempt to identify factors that cause these changes.

study shows that, although during this period 21.4 per cent of people were recorded to be in poverty for at least one year, only 3.4 per cent of the population were in poverty for all three years.

Missing a year is like taking a piece of the jigsaw puzzle and throwing it out. While we will still be able to see the overall picture, we will need to make assumptions about the size and shape of the missing piece. However, we may not get it right! Only you know exactly what size and shape the last year has taken for you… The more pieces we have, the more accurate our picture will be.