The National Centre for Pastoral Research (formerly Pastoral Research Office) is an agency of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
The National Centre for Pastoral Research has ongoing responsibility for:
- Carrying out the National Catholic Census Project (1996, 2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021), including the dissemination of results to parishes and dioceses.
- Carrying out and reporting the results of the National Count of Attendance (2001, 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2021).
- Catholic participation in the National Church Life Surveys (2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016).
- Providing assistance to dioceses, Catholic Education Offices and other Catholic agencies in the understanding and use of NCLS and Census data.
- Providing research and pastoral planning consultancy services to dioceses and Catholic agencies.
We also undertake topical projects from time to time. These include:
- Synod on Synodality (ongoing)
- A Profile of Catholic Clergy (2024)
- Evaluating the Implementation of “Woman and Man: The Bishops Respond” (Social Justice Sunday Statement 2000) (2024 – 2025)
- Absent From the Table: Australian Catholics who do not regularly attend Sunday Mass (2024 – 2025)
- Plenary Council 2020
- Pedagogy Development: Building on Positive Learnings from COVID-19 (2021 – 2022)
- Review of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (2020)
- Professional Development for Bishops Survey (2020)
- Church Governance Survey (2019)
- Survey of Religious Congregations in Australia 2018 (2018-2019)
- Understanding Religious Vocation in Australia Today (2014 – 2018)
- Our Work Matters: Catholic Church employers and employees in Australia (2015 – 2017)
- ‘Building Stronger Parishes’ (2009 – 2015)
Click here for our complete list of projects
