AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS (ABS)
NAME OF COLLECTION
Estimated Resident Population (ERP)
The Estimated Resident Population (ERP) is the official measure of the population of Australia and is based on the concept of usual residence. It refers to all people, regardless of nationality, citizenship or legal status, who usually live in Australia, with the exception of foreign diplomatic personnel and their families. It includes usual residents who are overseas for less than 12 months. It excludes overseas visitors who are in Australia for less than 12 months.
ERP is generated on a quarterly basis by adding natural increase (the excess of births over deaths) and net overseas migration (NOM) occurring during the period to the population at the beginning of each period.
Population estimates are used for a wide variety of purposes, including:
DATA ITEMS RELEVANT TO MIGRANTS AND ETHNICITY
- meeting a range of legislative requirements that make reference to population estimates
- the distribution of Australian Government funds to state, territory and local governments
- the apportionment of the number of seats in the House of Representatives
- the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of government policy
- market research
- academic research
- production of benchmarks used to weigh results from surveys conducted by ABS and other organisations
Data cubes for ERP by country of birth (together with other data items such as age and sex) together with explanatory notes are available from Migration, Australia
(cat. no. 3412.0).
OTHER DATA ITEMS COLLECTED
- Demographic details
- Net overseas migration
- Interstate migration
- Natural increase
Additional information and publications relating to ERP can be found in Demography - general
section on the ABS website.
For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service.
Phone: 1300 135 070
Fax: 1300 135 211
Post: Client Services, ABS, GPO Box 796, Sydney 2001
This page last updated 28 March 2011