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.
- The Australian Catholic Mapping Online project (2011–)
- 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 (2021—)
- 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)
- Fifth Plenary Council of Australia (2018 – 2021)
- Response to Governance Review Project (2023)
- ACBC-CRA Response to the Royal Commission Project (2023)
- Pedagogy Development: Building on Positive Learnings from COVID-19 (2021- 2022)
- Central Coast Project (2021)
- Review of the Australian Catholic Youth Festival (2020)
- Governance in Australia Survey (2019)
- Survey of Religious Congregations in Australia 2018 (2018-2019)
- Understanding Religious Vocation in Australia Today (2014-2018)
- Australian Catholic Bishops Youth Survey (2017)
- 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
