In 2014, the Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) program became the Australian Early Development Census . The census is undertaken once every 3 years by the Department of Education, Canberra as a progress measure of future human capital for the Council of Australian Governments.

The AEDI was been completed in 2009 and 2012 across South Australia and the results reveal patterns of child development across the state. Although simple descriptive statistics have been produced, and mapped data for communities are available via the data explorer on the census website ,  – the AEDI results have not been critically analysed for SA.

Specifically, the project aimed to determine if there were specific population groups that improved or not, and if so explore why, and to identify policy and service changes which may have impacted differently on South Australian children born in 2003 and 2004 compared to those born in 2006 and 2007.

This project helped inform the state and in particular the Department for Education and Child Development regarding the AEDI results in SA. Along with the AEDI analyses, resources to help facilitate conversations at the community through to Departmental level will be produced – aimed at supporting the use of population data.