Household Travel Survey

Household Travel Survey (HTS) is the most comprehensive source of personal travel data for the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area (GMA). This data explores average weekday travel patterns for residents in Sydney GMA.

The Household Travel Survey (HTS) collects information on personal travel behaviour. The study area for the survey is the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area (GMA) which includes Sydney Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA), parts of Illawarra and Hunter regions. All residents of occupied private dwellings within the Sydney GMA are considered within scope of the survey and are randomly selected to participate. The HTS has been running continuously since 1997/981 and collects data for all days through the year – including during school and public holidays.

Typically, approximately 2,000-3,000 households participate in the survey annually. Data is collected on all trips made over a 24-hour period by all members of the participating households.

Annual estimates from the HTS are usually produced on a rolling basis using multiple years of pooled data for each reporting year2. All estimates are weighted to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Estimated Resident Population, corresponding to the year of collection3. Unless otherwise stated, all reported estimates are for an average weekday.

Due to disruptions in data collection resulting from the lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, post-COVID releases of HTS data are based on a lower sample size than previous HTS releases. To ensure integrity of the results and mitigate risk of sampling errors some post-COVID results have been reported differently to previous years. Please see below for more information on changes to HTS post-COVID (2020/21 onwards).

1. Data collection for the HTS was suspended during lock-down periods announced by the NSW Government due to COVID-19.

2. Exceptions apply to the estimates for 2020/21 which are based on a single year of sample as it was decided not to pool the sample with data collected pre-COVID-19.

3. HTS population estimates are also slightly lower than those reported in the ABS census as the survey excludes overseas visitors and those in non-private dwellings.

Changes to HTS post-COVID (2020/21 onwards)

HTS was suspended from late March 2020 to early October 2020 due to the impact and restrictions of COVID-19, and again from July 2021 to October 2021 following the Delta wave of COVID-19. Consequently, both the 2020/21 and 2021/22 releases are based on a reduced data collection period and smaller samples.

Due to the impact of changed travel behaviours resulting from COVID-19 breaking previous trends, HTS releases since 2020/21 have been separated from pre-COVID-19 samples when pooled. As a result, HTS 2020/21 was based on a single wave of data collection which limited the breadth of geography available for release. Subsequent releases are based on pooled post-COVID samples to expand the geographies included with reliable estimates.

Disruption to the data collection during, and post-COVID has led to some adjustments being made to the HTS estimates released post-COVID:

SA3 level data has not been released for 2020/21 and 2021/22 due to low sample collection. LGA level data for 2021/22 has been released for selected LGAs when robust Relative Standard Error (RSE) for total trips are achieved Mode categories for all geographies are aggregated differently to the pre-COVID categories Purpose categories for some geographies are aggregated differently across 2020/21 and 2021/22. A new data release – for six cities as defined by the Greater Sydney Commission - is included since 2021/22. Please refer to the Data Document for 2022/23 (PDF, 262.54 KB) for further details.

RELEASE NOTE

The latest release of HTS data is 28 March 2024 . This release includes Region, LGA, SA3 and Six Cities data for 2022/23. This is the first release of SA3 level data from HTS post COVID-19.

A revised dataset for HTS 2021/22 data for LGAs and Six Cities has also been included in this release on 28 March 2024. If you have downloaded HTS 2021/22 data by LGA and/or Six Cities from this link prior to 28/03/2024, we advise you replace it with the revised tables.

Further revisions may be undertaken on the HTS post-COVID data (since 2020) as we review other datasets to calibrate the travel behaviour post-COVID.