Download and Tidy Time Series Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
Overview
Downloads, imports, and tidies time series data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics https://www.abs.gov.au/.
- BREAKING CHANGE to read_cpi() in light of changes to the CPI (move to monthly collection). Now has a
frequencyargument that controls whether the quarterly or monthly data is returned.
From NEWS.md in the release
Install
Health
ERRORexamplesr-oldrel-windows-x86_64, r-patched-linux-x86_64
r-oldrel-windows-x86_64
Running examples in 'readabs-Ex.R' failed
The error most likely occurred in:
> ### Name: get_available_lfs_cubes
> ### Title: Show the available Labour Force, Australia, detailed data cubes
> ### that can be downloaded
> ### Aliases: get_available_lfs_cubes
>
> ### ** Examples
>
>
> get_available_lfs_cubes()
URL does not seem to exist: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release
Here's the original error message:
cannot open URL 'https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release'Error in `path_to_connection()`:
! 'D:\temp\2026_10_21_01_50_00_6553\RtmpghyCx5/temp_readabs.html' does
not exist.
Backtrace:
▆
1. └─readabs::get_available_lfs_cubes()
2. └─readabs::get_available_files("labour-force-australia-detailed")
3. └─readabs::show_available_files(...)
4. ├─xml2::read_html(temp_page_location)
5. └─xml2:::read_html.default(temp_page_location)
6. ├─base::suppressWarnings(...)
7. │ └─base::withCallingHandlers(...)
8. ├─xml2::read_xml(x, encoding = encoding, ..., as_html = TRUE, options = options)
9. └─xml2:::read_xml.character(...)
10. └─xml2:::path_to_connection(x)
11. └─xml2:::check_path(path)
12. └─cli::cli_abort(msg, call = call)
13. └─rlang::abort(...)
Execution haltedr-patched-linux-x86_64
Running examples in ‘readabs-Ex.R’ failed
The error most likely occurred in:
> base::assign(".ptime", proc.time(), pos = "CheckExEnv")
> ### Name: get_available_lfs_cubes
> ### Title: Show the available Labour Force, Australia, detailed data cubes
> ### that can be downloaded
> ### Aliases: get_available_lfs_cubes
>
> ### ** Examples
>
>
> get_available_lfs_cubes()
URL does not seem to exist: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release
Here's the original error message:
cannot open URL 'https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release'Error in `path_to_connection()`:
! '/home/hornik/tmp/scratch/RtmplRnoO9/temp_readabs.html' does not
exist.
Backtrace:
▆
1. └─readabs::get_available_lfs_cubes()
2. └─readabs::get_available_files("labour-force-australia-detailed")
3. └─readabs::show_available_files(...)
4. ├─xml2::read_html(temp_page_location)
5. └─xml2:::read_html.default(temp_page_location)
6. ├─base::suppressWarnings(...)
7. │ └─base::withCallingHandlers(...)
8. ├─xml2::read_xml(x, encoding = encoding, ..., as_html = TRUE, options = options)
9. └─xml2:::read_xml.character(...)
10. └─xml2:::path_to_connection(x)
11. └─xml2:::check_path(path)
12. └─cli::cli_abort(msg, call = call)
13. └─rlang::abort(...)
Execution haltedERRORtestsr-oldrel-windows-x86_64, r-patched-linux-x86_64
r-oldrel-windows-x86_64
Running 'testthat.R' [10s]
Running the tests in 'tests/testthat.R' failed.
Complete output:
> library(testthat)
> library(readabs)
Environment variable 'R_READABS_PATH' is unset. Downloaded files will be saved in a temporary directory.
You can set 'R_READABS_PATH' at any time. To set it for the rest of this session, use
Sys.setenv(R_READABS_PATH = <path>)
>
> test_check("readabs")
Saving _problems/test-download_data_cube-16.R
Saving _problems/test-read_erp-2.R
Saving _problems/test-read_erp-18.R
[ FAIL 3 | WARN 3 | SKIP 35 | PASS 61 ]
══ Skipped tests (35) ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
• On CRAN (35): 'test-abs_api.R:2:3', 'test-abs_api.R:16:3',
'test-abs_api.R:46:3', 'test-abs_api.R:55:3', 'test-check_latest_date.R:2:3',
'test-data-uptodate.R:2:3', 'test-data-uptodate.R:15:3',
'test-download-data-cube.r:4:3', 'test-download_abs.R:2:3',
'test-download_data_cube.R:2:3', 'test-fst.R:2:3',
'test-get_available_
...[truncated]...
tings.
Backtrace:
▆
1. └─readabs::read_lfs_datacube("MRM1") at test-download_data_cube.R:16:3
2. └─readabs::download_abs_data_cube(...)
3. └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
── Error ('test-read_erp.R:2:3'): read_erp() works ─────────────────────────────
Error in `check_abs_connection()`: R cannot access the ABS website. Please check your internet connection and security settings.
Backtrace:
▆
1. └─readabs::read_erp() at test-read_erp.R:2:3
2. └─readabs::read_abs(...)
3. └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
── Error ('test-read_erp.R:18:3'): tidy_erp() works with all permutations of parameters ──
Error in `check_abs_connection()`: R cannot access the ABS website. Please check your internet connection and security settings.
Backtrace:
▆
1. └─readabs::read_abs("3101.0") at test-read_erp.R:18:3
2. └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
[ FAIL 3 | WARN 3 | SKIP 35 | PASS 61 ]
Error:
! Test failures.
Execution haltedr-patched-linux-x86_64
Running ‘testthat.R’ [6s/13s]
Running the tests in ‘tests/testthat.R’ failed.
Complete output:
> library(testthat)
> library(readabs)
Environment variable 'R_READABS_PATH' is unset. Downloaded files will be saved in a temporary directory.
You can set 'R_READABS_PATH' at any time. To set it for the rest of this session, use
Sys.setenv(R_READABS_PATH = <path>)
>
> test_check("readabs")
Saving _problems/test-download_data_cube-16.R
Saving _problems/test-read_erp-2.R
Saving _problems/test-read_erp-18.R
[ FAIL 3 | WARN 3 | SKIP 35 | PASS 61 ]
══ Skipped tests (35) ══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
• On CRAN (35): 'test-abs_api.R:2:3', 'test-abs_api.R:16:3',
'test-abs_api.R:46:3', 'test-abs_api.R:55:3', 'test-check_latest_date.R:2:3',
'test-data-uptodate.R:2:3', 'test-data-uptodate.R:15:3',
'test-download-data-cube.r:4:3', 'test-download_abs.R:2:3',
'test-download_data_cube.R:2:3', 'test-fst.R:2:3',
'test-get_availab
...[truncated]...
tings.
Backtrace:
▆
1. └─readabs::read_lfs_datacube("MRM1") at test-download_data_cube.R:16:3
2. └─readabs::download_abs_data_cube(...)
3. └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
── Error ('test-read_erp.R:2:3'): read_erp() works ─────────────────────────────
Error in `check_abs_connection()`: R cannot access the ABS website. Please check your internet connection and security settings.
Backtrace:
▆
1. └─readabs::read_erp() at test-read_erp.R:2:3
2. └─readabs::read_abs(...)
3. └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
── Error ('test-read_erp.R:18:3'): tidy_erp() works with all permutations of parameters ──
Error in `check_abs_connection()`: R cannot access the ABS website. Please check your internet connection and security settings.
Backtrace:
▆
1. └─readabs::read_abs("3101.0") at test-read_erp.R:18:3
2. └─readabs:::check_abs_connection()
[ FAIL 3 | WARN 3 | SKIP 35 | PASS 61 ]
Error:
! Test failures.
Execution halted- ERROR11 OK, 2 ERROR2026-10-22
- OK13 OK2026-09-12
- ERROR12 OK, 1 ERROR2026-09-11
- OK13 OK2026-08-05
- NOTE12 OK, 1 NOTE2026-08-01
Show 7 earlier changesHide 7 earlier changes
- OK13 OK2026-06-09
- ERROR12 OK, 1 ERROR2026-06-08
- OK13 OK2026-05-02
- ERROR11 OK, 1 ERROR2026-04-25
- OK14 OK2026-04-22
- ERROR13 OK, 1 ERROR2026-04-18
- OK14 OK2026-03-10
Documentation
- Help pages
- 29 (4 internal)
- Examples that run
- 20%4 run in a plain check · 2 only when donttest examples are enabled (R CMD check --as-cran) · 14 never run
- Exported functions with examples
- 83%
- Documented parameters
- 87%
- Return-value docs
- 58%
- Help pages citing references
- 0%
Downloads
Repository
- PRs merged (all time)
- 95%
- Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed issues
- 6
- Median days to close, 50 most recently updated closed PRs
- 1
Stars over time
Forks over time
Releases over time
Issues over time
PRs over time
10 development-tooling and community-health practices detected across 6 families in the upstream repository
Checks run against github.com/mattcowgill/readabs on 2026-10-21.
The R CMD check workflow runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, and on R-devel
GitHub Pages site last deployed 2026-05-15 · The repository has a site deploy workflow
Show all practicesHide 2 practices
Dependencies
Installing readabs adds 52 packages (31 with compiled code, 35 MB of source tarballs). Heaviest: stringi 11 MB, data.table 5.7 MB, readxl 2.1 MB.
Code & Tests
People & History
Previously maintained by Zoe Meers (0.2.1).
Pick two releases to compare their code metrics.
- 0.4.30Latest
- RR 4.6.0 released · 2026-04-24
- 0.4.202026-01-07 · diff ↗
- 0.4.192025-05-18 · diff ↗
- RR 4.5.0 released · 2025-04-11
- 0.4.18
- 0.4.162024-05-27 · diff ↗
- 0.4.15
- RR 4.4.0 released · 2024-04-24
- 0.4.142023-08-08 · diff ↗ ·
added 4 exports
read_api, read_api_dataflows, read_api_datastructure, read_api_url - RR 4.3.0 released · 2023-04-21
- 0.4.13
- RR 4.2.0 released · 2022-04-22
- 0.4.122022-04-15 · diff ↗
- 0.4.112021-12-17 · diff ↗
- 0.4.102021-10-28 · diff ↗
Show 20 earlier eventsHide 20 earlier events
- 0.4.92021-05-24 · diff ↗ ·
removed 1 export
read_abs_sdmxadded 6 exports
check_latest_date, read_abs_series, read_lfs_grossflows, search_catalogues, search_files, show_available_files - RR 4.1.0 released · 2021-05-18
- 0.4.82021-02-09 · diff ↗
- 0.4.6.9002020-12-15 · diff ↗
- 0.4.6
- 0.4.5.12020-10-14 · diff ↗
- 0.4.52020-10-04 · diff ↗ ·
removed 1 export
get_absadded 2 exports
get_available_files, show_available_catalogues - 0.4.3.32020-09-16 · diff ↗
- 0.4.3.2
- RR 4.0.0 released · 2020-04-24
- 0.4.32019-12-04 · diff ↗
- 0.4.22019-10-08 · diff ↗
- 0.4.12019-08-20 · diff ↗
- 0.4.0
- 0.3.12019-05-22 · diff ↗
- RR 3.6.0 released · 2019-04-26
- 0.3.02019-02-01 · diff ↗ ·
removed 1 export
pattern:^[[:alpha:]]+added 9 exports
extract_abs_sheets, get_abs, read_abs, read_abs_data, read_abs_local, read_abs_metadata, read_abs_sdmx, tidy_abs, tidy_abs_list - 0.2.92019-01-14 · diff ↗
- 0.2.12018-06-04
- RR 3.5.0 released · 2018-04-23
Package metadata
- First published
- 2018-06-04
- Total releases
- 27 / 8 yrs
- License
- MIT + file LICENSE OSI
- Minimum R
- ≥ 3.5
- Download size
- 3.2 MB
Cite
Cite this package
Run in R for the authors' preferred citation:
citation("readabs")This package has no citation file, so citation() returns this entry built from DESCRIPTION.
Cite the R Observatory
For a number measured here: a download total, a coverage figure, an archival date.
From data release v2026-10-23, which the citation names so these numbers can be found later. More on citing and the projects behind them.