Australian Bureau of Statistics Data API

Australian Bureau of Statistics Data API

The ABS Data API serves Australian statistics as SDMX over a keyless REST endpoint. The user guide says: "The ABS Data REST API (Beta) allows you request detailed ABS statistics including economic, social and Census data." and the ABS labels the service a Beta release.

Coverage

ABS dataflows covering economic, social and Census statistics — the published dataflow list includes Consumer Price Index (CPI), Labour Force, Australian National Accounts Key Aggregates, Retail Trade and the Estimated Resident Population series — queried by dataflow, data key and period. "Data is available in XML, JSON and CSV. If no format is selected the API will return XML." Metadata is primarily XML, with some available in JSON. The guide says the service "is fully compliant with SDMX 2.1 - the Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange information model." Update cadence follows each ABS release; the guide notes that in the beta "data in this beta release may not necessarily be the most up to date."

Verdict

Keyless SDMX access to ABS statistics. Authentication was removed in 2024: "As of the 29th of November 2024, Data API keys have been removed and we have transitioned to a register of interest system. The Data API is freely accessible without the need for an API key." Licence, from the ABS website copyright page: "All material presented on this website is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, with the exception of:" — the exceptions the page then lists are the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, the ABS logo, material protected by a trade mark, unit record data (microdata), content supplied by third parties, sub-brands for ABS data products and projects (e.g. DataLab, SEAD), ‘Our story, our future’ artwork and brand, Census branding and artwork, and Occupation Standard Classification for Australia (OSCA) branding and artwork. Microdata is both outside that licence and outside this API. WARNING: "Availability of the ABS Data API (Beta) is not guaranteed. Performance and availability may be impacted during periods of high use." Rate limits: Not stated. Signal Lab links only.