Living in Australia: The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey
About the study
Living in Australia: The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey provides longitudinal data on the lives of Australian residents. The survey covers a wide range of aspects of life including:
- family dynamics
- economic wellbeing
- subjective wellbeing
- labour market dynamics.
Visit the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research website for information about the HILDA survey(Opens in a new tab/window).
Read more about the survey in the HILDA fact sheet.
Study participants
The survey commenced in 2001. The study collected data annually through interviews with all people over 15 years old in each household. In wave 1, the study collected data from 7,682 households (13,969 individuals). The wave 11 data collection added a sample top up of 2,153 households (5,462 individuals).
Table: HILDA survey sample size and response rates
This table shows for each wave the number of HILDA survey participants and the retention rates.
| Wave | Persons interviewed in responding households1 (Number) | Wave-on-wave response rate2 (%) | Response rate of initial wave respondents3 (%) | |
| Main cohort | Top-up cohort4 | |||
| Wave 1 | 13,969 | - | - | |
| Wave 2 | 13,041 | 86.9 | 86.9 | |
| Wave 3 | 12,728 | 90.4 | 82.1 | |
| Wave 4 | 12,408 | 91.6 | 78.6 | |
| Wave 5 | 12,759 | 94.4 | 78.1 | |
| Wave 6 | 12,905 | 94.9 | 76.6 | |
| Wave 7 | 12,789 | 94.7 | 74.0 | |
| Wave 8 | 12,785 | 95.2 | 72.5 | |
| Wave 9 | 13,301 | 96.3 | 72.1 | |
| Wave 10 | 13,526 | 96.4 | 70.8 | |
| Wave 11 | 17,612 | 96.5 | 69.8 | |
| Wave 12 | 17,475 | 95.3 | 68.6 | 92.3 |
| Wave 13 | 17,500 | 95.5 | 67.4 | 87.4 |
| Wave 14 | 17,511 | 96.1 | 66.5 | 84.8 |
| Wave 15 | 17,605 | 96.5 | 65.6 | 82.4 |
| Wave 16 | 17,693 | 96.7 | 64.6 | 81.0 |
| Wave 17 | 17,570 | 96.4 | 63.7 | 78.6 |
| Wave 18 | 17,434 | 96.2 | 62.0 | 75.9 |
| Wave 19 | 17,462 | 96.7 | 60.7 | 74.0 |
| Wave 20 | 17,070 | 95.2 | 58.7 | 70.9 |
| Wave 21 | 16,549 | 94.0 | 56.1 | 67.6 |
| Wave 22 | 15,954 | 93.4 | 53.7 | 64.4 |
Notes:
- The number of persons who completed an individual interview. There may be other adult members in a responding household who are not interviewed.
- The proportion of persons who responded in both the current and the previous waves, of those who responded in the previous wave and were in-scope to respond in the current wave.
- The proportion of persons who responded in both the current wave and the initial wave, of those who responded in the initial wave and were in-scope to respond in the current wave.
- In wave 11, a large top up of new households occurred.
- This table is sourced and derived from HILDA User Manual - Release 22.
Governance
We are responsible for the HILDA survey. The Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne are contracted for the design and management of the survey.
The Nielsen Company collected data for waves 1 to 8. Roy Morgan Research collected data for waves 9 to 2022.
The HILDA Executive Reference Group includes leading researchers from a range of disciplines. They provide advice on the development of survey content.
The HILDA Technical Reference Group provides technical advice to the study.
Visit the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic and Social Research website for information about the HILDA reference groups(Opens in a new tab/window).
How to access the data
HILDA data is available for free through the Australian Data Archive Dataverse platform.
The data is for approved researchers from government, academic institutions and non-profit organisations.
Visit Dataverse(Opens in a new tab/window).
Learn more about how to apply for access to our datasets.
Research and publications
HILDA data has improved our understanding of the issues facing families regarding income and labour dynamics. An extensive number of research publications use or reference HILDA data.
Visit the Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research website for HILDA survey publications(Opens in a new tab/window). This includes statistical reports, technical papers, journal articles and conference papers.
Data highlights
Data Highlight No.1/2014: Financial Hardship in Australia by Laura Bennetts Kneebone
Research summaries
Find other research publications using HILDA data on our FloSse Research(Opens in a new tab/window) website.
Contact us
For more information about the HILDA survey, contact LongitudinalStudies@dss.gov.au.