The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes - 2023 - National Identity and Citizenship

The Australian Survey of Social Attitudes (AuSSA) is Australia’s main source of data for the scientific study of the social attitudes, beliefs and opinions of Australians, how they change over time, and how they compare with other societies.

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The survey is used to help researchers better understand how Australians think and feel about their lives. It produces important information about the changing views and attitudes of Australians as we move through the 21st century. Similar surveys are run in other countries, so data from AuSSA survey also allows us to compare Australia with countries all over the world.

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AuSSA is also the Australian component of the International Social Survey Project (ISSP). The ISSP is a cross-national collaboration on surveys covering important topics. Each year, survey researchers in some 40 countries each do a national survey using the same questions. Here are some examples of surveys in other countries that are the equivalent to AuSSA:

 

The ISSP focuses on a special topic each year, repeating that topic from time to time. The topic for the upcoming 2023 survey is "National Identity and Citizenship". Previously the AuSSA ran National Identity (2013) and Citizenship (2014 as separate modules, but these have been combined to allow for a new module, "Digital Societies" expected to run in 2024.

 

​Data collection for the AuSSA 2023 was due to begin in May 2023, and due to complete in May 2024, but has been delayed. Data collection is now scheduled for June 2024.

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How will participants be selected?

AuSSA aims to survey a representative sample of adult Australians. The fairest way of doing that is to draw a random sample from the Australian Electoral Roll. This means every Australian citizen has an equal chance of having their views included in the survey, and means that researchers are able to use statistical techniques to make inferences about Australian society overall on the basis of characteristics of the sample. ACSPRI is named in a Federal Regulation as a permitted user of the electoral roll for the purposes of inviting persons to participate inthe AuSSA.

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We will randomly select at least 5000 citizens from the electoral roll. Each of them will be posted an explanatory letter, followed by a questionnaire booklet and reply paid envelope. Up to three reminder mailings will be sent for participants who do not return a booklet. We expect around 1000 will return a completed questionnaire.

 

​Selected questions

Questions asked of respondents will cover topics such as immigration, being "Australian", patriotism, political participation, media use and trust in government

 

Contributing questions to the AuSSA 2023

 

Running a high quality, nationally representative survey requires the support of individual researchers willing to include their own questions in return for sponsorship of the survey. The fee will be $1,000 (exc GST) per question (i.e. per 'tick') for the full sample of 1000, or $400 to be included in any one of the 4 sub-samples. Please contact surveys@acspri.org.au for more information. Each of the 4 waves of data collection is to a distinct sample (i.e. the design is a repeated cross sectional survey)

  1. The first wave of data collection is due to run in May 2023. Any contributed questions must be finalised by 31 March 2023.
  2. The second wave began data is due to run in August 2023. Any contributed questions must be finalised by 14 July 2023.
  3. The third wave of data collection is due to run in November 2023. Any contributed questions must be finalised by 13 October 2023.
  4. The fourth wave of data collection is due to run in February 2024. Any contributed questions must be finalised by 12 January 2024.

 

Access to results from AuSSA 2023

 

AuSSA data will be available to the public on the Australian Data Archive site in late 2024.

 

 

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For more information:

Tel. 1800 122 251 (free call)
Email: surveys@acspri.org.au