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Minister for Defence Personnel Darren Chester has released the details of the Defence Census 2019 Public Report, detailing female and Indigenous participation in the ADF has increased in the last four years.
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This was the eighth census conducted by Defence since 1991. The census captures the demographic profile of the entire Defence workforce of around 100,000 people, comprising the permanent (SERCAT 7 and 6) and reserve (SERCAT 5, 4 and 3) components of the ADF and the Defence APS.
Minister for Defence Personnel Darren Chester said the census provided valuable data on the demographic profile of the Defence workforce and assisted in the development of policies and conditions that keep pace with contemporary changes in Defence and Australian society.
“Providing a moment-in-time snapshot of the Defence workforce and their families, the census highlights trends in areas such as education, work-life-balance and family circumstances,” Minister Chester said.
“Since 2015, female representation across the ADF has increased by 3.1 per cent, with Air Force seeing a 4 per cent increase during that time. Similarly, ADF personnel who identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander increased from 2.3 per cent in 2015 to 3.7 per cent in 2019.
“This is great to see as it highlights that we are attracting a diverse range of people, which only makes our ADF better.”
The census also tracks data on the families of serving personnel, which showed that 79 per cent of all Defence spouses were employed, while 8 per cent were not employed and looking for work.
For the first time, Defence collected information about study and use of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) qualifications, to assist with the development of Defence STEM capability.
“Thirty-nine per cent of the overall Defence workforce have a STEM qualification, with the top STEM field of study being engineering,” Minister Chester said.
The Defence Census is used extensively by ADF and Departmental staff involved in developing personnel, financial and non-financial conditions of service, and family support policies and programs.
The anonymous aggregated data has previously been used by external agencies such as the Defence Housing Authority and academic institutions involved in Defence and social research.
Census data is also regularly used to support briefing ministers, parliamentary committees and other elements of government involved with Defence issues.
More than 50,000 ADF personnel and Defence Australian Public Service employees took part in the 2019 Defence Census. The Defence Census 2019 Public Report is available at www.defence.gov.au/defencecensus.
