The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey (HILDA) is an Australian

household A household consists of one or more persons who live in the same dwelling. It may be of a single family or another type of person group. The household is the basic unit of analysis in many social, microeconomic and government models, and is im ...

-based

longitudinal study A longitudinal study (or longitudinal survey, or panel study) is a research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over long periods of time (i.e., uses longitudinal data). It is often a type of observationa ...

which began in 2001. It has been used for examining a wide variety of economic, social, health and other issues, examples of which include: the incidence of persistent poverty; assets and income in the transition to retirement; the correlates and impact of changes in physical and mental health; the social and health impacts of climate change; and an international comparison of wealth and happiness. The survey is widely used by Australian and international researchers in the fields of

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

and

social policy Some professionals and universities consider social policy a subset of public policy, while other practitioners characterize social policy and public policy to be two separate, competing approaches for the same public interest (similar to MD a ...

and by the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

. The HILDA survey is managed by a small team in the

Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research The Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (often simply referred to as "The Melbourne Institute") is an Australian Economics, economic research institute based in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria. The institute is ...

at the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

. The inaugural director of the study was Professor Mark Wooden, who served in the role from 2000 to 2023. It is currently led by Nicole Watson and Roger Wilkins. The fieldwork was carried out by ACNielsen from 2001 to 2009 and has since been carried out by

Roy Morgan Research Roy Morgan, formerly known as Roy Morgan Research, is an independent Australian social and political market research and public opinion statistics company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria. It operates nationally as Roy Morgan and internatio ...

. The survey is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Social Services. HILDA has the following key features: *It collects information about

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

and subjective

well-being Well-being is what is Intrinsic value (ethics), ultimately good for a person. Also called "welfare" and "quality of life", it is a measure of how well life is going for someone. It is a central goal of many individual and societal endeavors. ...

labour market Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labou ...

dynamics and family dynamics. *Special questionnaire modules are included each wave and have covered topics such as

wealth Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an ...

retirement Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

and

fertility Fertility in colloquial terms refers the ability to have offspring. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the actual production of offspring, rather than the physical capability to reproduce, which is termed fecundity. The fertility rate ...

intentions. *The wave 1 panel consisted of 7,682 households and 19,914 individuals. In wave 11 this was topped up with an additional 2,153 households and 5,477 individuals *Interviews are conducted annually with all adult members of each household. Children are interviewed once they turn 15. *The panel members are followed over time. *Funding has been guaranteed for 25 waves, and the survey is expected to continue beyond wave 25. *Each release of the data typically occurs at the start of December each year. The release in December 2023 was for data collected from 2001 (wave 1) to 2022 (wave 22). HILDA data, when weighted, describe the Australian population, although homeless people and recent immigrants are under-represented. The datasets ( PSPP/

SPSS SPSS Statistics is a statistical software suite developed by IBM for data management, advanced analytics, multivariate analysis, business intelligence, and criminal investigation. Long produced by SPSS Inc., it was acquired by IBM in 2009. Versi ...

, SAS and Stata files) are available for legitimate research purposes and application can be made from the Australian Data Archive. The data are confidentialised by suppression of geographic and other identifying information. A bibliography of published research, the survey

methodology In its most common sense, methodology is the study of research methods. However, the term can also refer to the methods themselves or to the philosophical discussion of associated background assumptions. A method is a structured procedure for bri ...

, the

questionnaire A questionnaire is a research instrument that consists of a set of questions (or other types of prompts) for the purpose of gathering information from respondents through survey or statistical study. A research questionnaire is typically a mix of ...

s and a user manual are available from the Melbourne Institute's HILDA website.

References

External links

*
Cross National Equivalent File (CNEF)Cited in the 2024 Australian Government Women's Budget Statement
{{Social surveys Economy of Australia Economic data Panel data Social research Household income Household surveys

See also

References

External links