NSS Informing Our Society

Working Towards an Informed Australian Society:
Discover the National Statistical Service (NSS)

The National Statistical Service (NSS) is a community of Government agencies, led by the ABS, building a rich statistical picture for a better informed Australia.  One of the main aims of the NSS is to develop and improve the statistical system to ensure that providers and users of statistics have the confidence to trust the statistics produced.

The NSS seeks to improve the full suite of statistics produced by the Government. Government agencies are increasingly producing and/or using statistical information for developing policy, performance monitoring and program evaluation. The NSS is working to ensure that relevant statistical data can be brought together through an agreed set of statistical frameworks, principles, polices and data resources for the benefit of government agencies. The information base will include important statistics generated as a by-product of the administrative processes of Government, as well as the outputs of statistical collections conducted to support government activities. The key benefit of this initiative will be the availability of a larger range of relevant and high quality statistics for informed decision making.

A key NSS initiative is the Statistical Clearing House (SCH) which provides a central clearance point for business surveys, that are run, funded or conducted on behalf of the Australian Government. The purpose of the SCH is to reduce duplication, minimise the burden on business and ensure that surveys are fit for purpose.

To assist in improving the quality of statistical collections and information management activities, the National Statistical Service also provides access  to Online resources to support the development of statistical expertise. These resources include the NSS Handbook, A Good Practice Guide to Sharing your Data with Others, the Data Quality Online tool and the Sample Size Calculator.

The objectives of the NSS are set out in the NSS Vision Statement, along with the NSS initiatives that are improving the quality of national statistics.

For more information about the NSS, please visit nss.gov.au or email inquiries@nss.gov.au.