About Us

An Introduction to Community Indicators Victoria

Community Indicators Victoria aims to support the development and use of local community wellbeing indicators in Victoria, Australia, with the purpose of improving citizen engagement, community planning and policy making. Community Indicators Victoria presents data and reports on the wellbeing of Victorians using an integrated set of community wellbeing indicators.

These indicators include a broad range of measures designed to identify and communicate economic, social, environmental, democratic and cultural trends and outcomes.

The objectives of Community Indicators Victoria are to:

• provide a sustainable mechanism for the collation, analysis and distribution of local community wellbeing indicator trend data across Victoria; 
• be a resource centre supporting the development and use of local community wellbeing indicators by local governments and their communities; and
• contribute to national and international policy research on the development and use of local community wellbeing indicators as a basis for improving community engagement, community planning and policy making.

The comprehensive framework of indicators included in Community Indicators Victoria was determined by the Victorian Community Indicators Project commissioned by VicHealth which ran from January 2005 until July 2006. The goal of this seed project was to establish a sustainable statewide system of local community wellbeing indicators. The project completed extensive consultation with local and state government, academics and a literature review in order to develop a framework of indicators for measuring the wellbeing of Victorians.

The details of this indicator framework are listed in the Victorian Community Indicators Project Final Report.

Community Indicators Victoria is the operationalisation of the Victorian Community Indicators Project and provides indicator measures for five major domains of community wellbeing:

• Social
• Economic
• Environmental
• Democratic
• Cultural

Community Indicators Victoria is a collaborative project, funded by VicHealth and hosted by the McCaughey Centre, School of Population Health, at the University of Melbourne. The McCaughey Centre works in partnership with a wide range of government, community, and academic organisations to ensure that Community Indicators Victoria remains in touch with the needs of its users.

Target audience

Community Indicators Victoria is a useful resource for a wide range of people including:

• Anyone with an interest in the wellbeing of their community
• Local government mayors and councillors
• Local government policy and planning staff
• State government policy and planning staff
• Non-government organisations