Conclusion
The 1981 Census Project has produced a large amount of material which has been circulated widely. The response to the project has demonstrated that there is a growing recognition of the utility of demographic analysis in planning a wide range of service provisions and in policy formulation. Thorough and informed analysis of census and other sources of population information can be of major assistance in early detection of emerging trends and problems, developing planning strategies to cope with those problems and in documenting submissions and proposals to be submitted to funding bodies and agencies.
In an era of contracting availability of resources, it is critical that decision-making is informed by a comprehensive knowledge of the changing composition and size of local, regional, State and national populations. In Australia we have too little analysis of population trends, and too much of what is done is of anad hoc and repetitive nature. Governments at all levels are increasingly requiring projections of future population trends and these can only be satisfactorily developed if they are based on a sound and informed understanding of the dynamics of the contemporary population.
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Hugo, G., Wood, D. The 1981 census project. Journal of Population Research 2, 150–166 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03042307
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03042307