AustraliaMetrics API

A free, keyless, public read-only API for every metric tracked on this site. All data is published under CC BY 4.0, please attribute “AustraliaMetrics” with a link back.

Base URL: https://www.australiametrics.org/api/v1

Rate limit: 1,000 requests / day per IP. Limit and remaining count appear in X-RateLimit-* response headers.

Caching: Cache-Control: public, s-maxage=300, stale-while-revalidate=86400. Data refreshes weekly: please cache aggressively on your side too.

CORS: open (Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *), so it is safe to call directly from browser code.

GET/api/v1/metrics

List every public metric, with optional category and tier filters. Returns lightweight rows suitable for building a picker. A primary metric is a headline indicator; a secondary metric is supporting detail (a breakdown or component) for the primary named in supports, and is not part of the national scores.

curl 'https://www.australiametrics.org/api/v1/metrics?category=economic&tier=primary' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json'

# Parameters:
#   category   optional  category slug
#   tier       optional  primary | secondary (both when omitted)

# Response:
{
  "_meta": { "licence": "CC BY 4.0", "count": 8, ... },
  "data": [
    {
      "slug": "cpi",
      "name": "CPI (Inflation)",
      "unit": "%",
      "category": { "slug": "economic", "name": "Economic" },
      "tier": "primary",
      "supports": null,
      "citationShort": "ABS 6401.0",
      "lastObservedAt": "2026-04-30T00:00:00.000Z",
      "permalink": "https://www.australiametrics.org/metric/cpi",
      ...
    }
  ]
}

GET/api/v1/metrics/:slug

Full metadata for one metric, including methodology, latest value, and dimensions (states / other splits).

curl 'https://www.australiametrics.org/api/v1/metrics/cpi'

# Response includes:
#   - identity (name, unit, category, frequency)
#   - tier, supports (the primary a secondary belongs to) and supportingMetrics (a primary's secondaries)
#   - editorial (keyInsight, methodologyMd)
#   - provenance (citationShort, sourceUrl, licence, lastObservedAt)
#   - latestValue
#   - dimensions (e.g. per-state breakdowns)
#   - links.observations: direct URL to the observations endpoint

GET/api/v1/observations

Time-series data for a single metric. Default series is monthly (carry-forward applied); set series=native for the raw published series. CSV download via format=csv.

# JSON, last 5 years of monthly CPI:
curl 'https://www.australiametrics.org/api/v1/observations?metric=cpi&from=2021-01-01&series=monthly'

# CSV download:
curl -o cpi.csv 'https://www.australiametrics.org/api/v1/observations?metric=cpi&format=csv'

# Filter by state dimension:
curl 'https://www.australiametrics.org/api/v1/observations?metric=unemployment-rate&dimension=state:NSW'

# Parameters:
#   metric     required  metric slug
#   from       optional  inclusive lower bound (YYYY-MM-DD)
#   to         optional  inclusive upper bound (YYYY-MM-DD)
#   series     optional  monthly (default) | native
#   dimension  optional  type:value, e.g. state:NSW
#   format     optional  json (default) | csv
#   limit      optional  max rows (default 5000, max 10000)

Attribution

When you use this data, please attribute “AustraliaMetrics” with a link back to the relevant metric page (returned in every response as permalink). Upstream sources retain their own licences, the citationShort and sourceUrl fields point at the publishing agency.

Limits, errors, and changes

429 Too Many Requests with Retry-After when the daily limit is reached.
400 Bad Request for invalid query params (Zod validation; details in issues).
404 Not Found when the metric slug or dimension does not exist.
The /v1/ namespace is stable. Breaking changes will ship under /v2/; the old version remains.

Found a bug, want a new endpoint, or hitting the limit? Get in touch via /contact.