Report on the Quality of 2016 Census Data

On Australian Census night, 9 August 2016, the online Census website experienced a series of Distributed Denial of Service attacks and the ABS made the decision to take down the online Census form as a "precautionary step "¦ to protect people's data"4. The online Census form remained unavailable for almost 43 hours and was reopened on 11 August 2016. The Australian Statistician therefore established an Independent Assurance Panel in 2016 to provide an independent view of the quality of statistical outputs from the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. The Panel were tasked with providing a written report to the Australian Statistician giving its view on aspects of quality of 2016 Census data. The Panel considered issues including, but not limited to Census design, enumeration, processing and quality assurance, and assessed quality using the quality of outputs from the 2011 and 2006 Censuses as benchmarks. This report presents the findings of the Panel following its review of the quality of the 2016 Census data and provides information to enable governments, the community, and other stakeholders to make an informed judgment about the fitness-for-purpose and credibility of the 2016 Census data.