When is Community Views data updated?

Community Views results are updated when the commissioning organisation runs a new survey wave. There is no single standard wave cadence: the timing is determined by the commissioning organisation based on how it intends to use the evidence, commonly every year or every two years. This article explains how wave timing works, how to check how current your results are and what wave-to-wave changes mean for comparing results over time.

Key concepts

Survey waves and cadence

A wave is a repeat run of the survey. Some organisations repeat Community Views annually, particularly where they want a regular measure of community sentiment, to track change closely or to align results with annual planning, reporting or budget cycles. Others repeat the survey every two years, which can be appropriate where the focus is on identifying longer-term change or informing major strategy reviews. The cadence is deliberately flexible: it is set to suit the organisation's planning cycle, decision-making needs, budget and desired level of trend monitoring. The important point is consistency once a cadence is established, because repeating the survey at regular intervals lets you track whether community priorities and experiences are changing, identify emerging issues and assess whether gaps are improving or worsening over time.

Question wording across waves

Question wording is managed project by project. For the core Community Views questions, we generally recommend keeping wording and response scales as consistent as possible across waves, so changes in results are more likely to reflect changes in community views or experiences rather than changes in how the question was asked. Where a core question does change materially, that needs to be taken into account when interpreting the trend: minor wording refinements may have little effect, but changes to definitions, examples, response options, scales or question framing can reduce direct comparability with earlier waves. Custom questions are more flexible and are often added, removed or revised between waves, so not every custom measure is intended to form a continuous time series.

Benchmark updates

Benchmark comparisons come from Living in Australia, .id's separate annual national benchmark survey, collected once per year around April. It is a different survey from your organisation's own Community Views survey, so its update timing is independent of your wave cadence.

How to tell how current your results are

Because wave timing is set by each commissioning organisation, and questions can be added or revised between waves, the reliable guide is the collection date shown on the Community Views platform: it appears in the bottom right of each topic tile and at the top of each chart. Results across all survey waves are held on the platform, so you can see earlier waves as well as the most recent one. Checking the collection date before quoting a figure tells you which wave it comes from, so you can present it as current or historical accordingly.

Frequently asked questions

Q: When will my Community Views results be updated?

A: When your organisation runs its next survey wave. There is no single standard cadence: timing is set by the commissioning organisation, commonly every year or every two years, to suit its planning cycle, decision-making needs, budget and desired level of trend monitoring.

Q: How do I find out when the data on a chart was collected?

A: The collection date appears in the bottom right of each topic tile and at the top of each chart on the Community Views platform.

Q: Can I compare results across waves?

A: Yes, question by question. Measures with stable wording can be compared confidently over time. Where a core question has changed materially, that is identified and considered when interpreting results. Custom questions are not always intended to form a continuous time series.

Q: Why does my organisation's survey run at a different time from another organisation's?

A: The timing is determined by each commissioning organisation based on how it intends to use the evidence, so cadences differ between organisations by design.