Quality assurance
The report content has been prepared by AIHW staff, and was subject to a rigorous internal
review and clearance process. Additional external expert peer reviewers were used to validate and
strengthen the content of the report.
Data sources
The best available information has been used to inform this report, drawn from a range of data
sources that are referenced throughout. The two main data sources are national collections
managed by the AIHW and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These main sources are supplemented
by other data collections, as appropriate.
Each of the data sources used in the report has strengths and limitations that affect how the data
can be used and what can be inferred from the results. The AIHW takes great care to ensure that
data used are correct, and that the conclusions drawn are robust.
Although this report was published in 2015, many of the statistics refer to 2014 or earlier. This is
because some data, such as population-based surveys, are collected every 3–5 years or even less
often. Once new data are publicly available, the AIHW needs further time to fully process the data,
analyse them, and interpret results.
Given the comprehensive nature of this report, and the time it takes to prepare a compendium
report of this scale, it is possible that some other reports with more recent data may be released by
the AIHW or others just before or shortly after the publication of Australia’s welfare 2015.
Additional material online
This edition of Australia’s welfare has an expanded online presence, including live links to referenced
publications and web pages, and supplementary tables. Australia’s welfare 2015 is available online in
HTML and PDF formats.
Visit Australia’s welfare 2015 online at www.aihw.gov.au/australias-welfare.