Understand community-level data

Learn how to understand data to tell stories about what’s happening in a community.

Getting started

This resource is primarily for beginner data users rather than experienced data practitioners. It will help you to apply data practices and concepts to find and use community-level data.

Community-level data is a useful tool to build knowledge, understand opportunities and track your impact in a particular community. This means when you use and interpret community-level data, you need to remember the data and results are specific to that community’s context.  

Before using and interpreting community-level data, you should consider:

Develop a research question 

The first step to understand community-level data is to develop a research question(Opens in a new tab/window). 

A research question should clearly summarise what you want to investigate. 

For example, your research question could focus on: 

  • an outcome you wish to see in your community
  • understanding experiences of those living in your community
  • identifying opportunities in your community
  • determining community priorities
  • understanding how particular policies or programs have benefitted a community.

A good research question should be:

Research question frameworks 

Frameworks can help you develop your research question. 

For further information on research questions, you can use these resources:

Selecting the right data

Once you have decided your research question, the next step is to do the research. You could follow these 3 steps. 

  1. Step 1

    Find relevant community-level data for your research question

    Look at Find community-level data to find data that may be relevant to your research question. You may wish to consider multiple data sources across different indicators and groupings. While these are grouped in line with the Measuring What Matters Framework, you may wish to consider connecting multiple data sources across themes.

  2. Step 2

    Find out what type of community-level data is available for your research question

    There are 5 main types of data.
     

  1. Step 3

    Find other data that could help you answer your research question 

    This toolkit provides links to data from the Australian Government. You could reach out to the following institutions and organisations to find other relevant data: 

    • state or territory government 
    • local government 
    • service providers in the local area 
    • charities and not-for-profits in the local area 
    • schools and preschools 
    • community groups
    • collect your own data

Listening and engaging with your community

Community-level data won’t always offer the complete story.

Speaking with community members can help identify the community’s needs. You could use the qualitative data tools outlined below to engage community members. 

Talking to other people and groups can broaden your perspective. Quantitative and qualitative data provide different outcomes and are often used together to get a full picture of a population.

Professionals in your local networks may also be able to help you collect data. You could talk to:

  • practitioners
  • service providers
  • advocacy organisations working in your community.

How to collect qualitative data 

There are many ways to collect qualitative data about your community. You could consider using:

  • surveys for asking a lot of people the same questions, and for understanding what the members of a community think about something
  • observations to observe people’s behaviours instead of their opinions and detect changes in your community over time
  • focus groups to understand how diverse groups of people feel about issues and provide context to survey or observation results 
  • interviews to understand the diverse experiences in your community with open-ended questions. 

The following resources provide information on different tools and how to use them:

Consider Indigenous Data Sovereignty

Better outcomes are achieved if Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have a genuine say in matters affecting them. 

On 20 June 2018, the Maim nayri Wingara Indigenous Data Sovereignty Collective and the Australian Indigenous Governance Institute held an Indigenous Data Sovereignty Summit in Canberra.

The summit aimed to develop a shared understanding of Indigenous Data Sovereignty and Indigenous Data Governance. Delegates asserted the rights of First Nations peoples in Australia in relation to the creation and use of their data. 

For more information on decisions of the Summit delegates you can read the Indigenous Data Sovereignty Summit Communique(Opens in a new tab/window).

It is important to consider the principles of Indigenous Data Sovereignty in your community-level data research. The sections below provide some examples on how you can do this during your data analysis and interpretation.

Data analysis 

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people need to be involved in analysis. This helps provide context and build data analysis capability. 
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives should shape how the data is analysed and your method choice. 
  • Methodology for analysis should be designed in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 

Data interpretation 

  • To have an understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and the complexities of colonisation. 
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should have the right to self-determination over their data-driven narrative. 
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities should be supported by data practitioners, where appropriate, to integrate multiple data sources, conduct analyses, and produce self-determined interpretations of issues. 
  • Data practitioners must promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s cultural safety.

Framework for Governance of Indigenous Data (Opens external website)

To learn more about how the Commonwealth Government is responding to Indigenous Data Sovereignty, visit the National Indigenous Australians Agency’s website to read the Framework for Governance of Indigenous Data.

National Agreement of Closing the Gap Priority Reform 4 (Opens external website)

To learn more about the Government’s commitments to helping Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people access and analyse regional data, visit the National Agreement on Closing the Gap website to read about Priority Reform 4: Shared Access to Data and Information at a Regional Level.

Presenting data

Visualising your research is the next step in understanding your community-level data. You can present data in many ways. 

The ABS has a resource for learning how to present data(Opens in a new tab/window) It includes the benefits and limitations of some different options for presenting data. 

When choosing how to present your data, you should consider these questions:

  • What type of data is being presented? 
  • Who is the audience? 
  • What are you trying to achieve by visualising the data? 

These questions can help you identify which visual tool is the most appropriate for your purposes and audience.

Tools for presenting data 

The following tools can help you present data. 

Best practice principles for presenting data

Consider the following principles when presenting data.

Further information on these best practice principles are provided in the Victorian Government’s place-based approaches guide(Opens in a new tab/window). 

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