2901.0 - Census Dictionary, 2006 (Reissue)  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/07/2007  Reissue
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Contents >> Short Definitions and Classifications - 2006 >> Tenure Type (TEND) - Characteristics 2006

Tenure Type

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Description
Image of Question
Classification
Quality Statement


Description

Tenure type describes whether a household is purchasing, rents or owns, the dwelling in which it was enumerated on Census Night, or whether the household occupies it under another arrangement. Tenure type is derived from the responses to a series of questions. More Detailed Description


Image of Question

2006 Household Form - Question 56

Classification

Applicable to: Occupied private dwellings

1. Fully owned
2. Being purchased
3. Being purchased under a rent/buy scheme
4. Rented
5. Being occupied rent-free
6. Being occupied under a life tenure scheme
7. Other tenure type
& Not stated
@ Not applicable

Total number of categories: 9

More Detailed Description
Quality Statement - Tenure Type (TEND)

There are many aspects which can affect the quality of Census data; the following information should be considered when viewing data on Tenure Type (TEND).

This data item is applicable to occupied private dwellings, which comprise 90.1% of all private dwellings.

Tenure Type (TEND) is derived from answers to two questions on the Census form. Most of the data is captured automatically from Question 56 (which asks if the dwelling is owned, being purchased or being rented). In addition, 3.8% of the rented category also includes dwellings with a response of "other" or "not stated" to that question, but where the following question on landlord type was answered.

The data is captured automatically from check box responses so the risk of processing error is minimal. Sample checks of the data are undertaken to ensure an acceptable level of quality.

The non-response rate for 2006 was 7.1% compared with 4.7% for 2001. Part of this non-response is attributable to the 4.2% of private dwellings which were occupied on Census Night but did not return a completed form. For these dwellings the value for TEND remains not stated. In 2001, 2.0% of private dwellings did not return a completed form.

In a small proportion of cases (testing has indicated that this is under 2%), respondents provided an incorrect combination of responses to the primary question for TEND, (where respondents are asked to provide only one response). In these cases responses are accepted in the order they appear on the form and the extra responses are rejected.

A change in the wording of the dwelling ownership responses may have produced a small change in distributions for the "Fully Owned" and "Being Purchased" categories. The response "Owned outright" replaces "Fully owned" and "Owned with a mortgage" replaces "Being purchased".

The ABS aims to produce high quality data from the Census. To achieve this, extensive effort is put into Census form design, collection procedures, and processing procedures.

There are four principal sources of error in Census data: respondent error, processing error, partial response and undercount. Quality management of the Census program aims to reduce error as much as possible, and to provide a measure of the remaining error to data users, to allow them to use the data in an informed way.

When completing their Census form, some people do not answer all the questions which apply to them. In these instances, a 'not stated' code is allocated during processing, with the exception of non-response to age, sex, marital status and place of usual residence. These variables are needed for population estimates, so they are imputed using other information on the Census form, as well as information from the previous Census.

The processing of information from Census forms is now mostly automated, using scanning, Intelligent Character Recognition and other automatic processes. Quality assurance procedures are used during Census processing to ensure processing errors are kept at an acceptable level. Sample checking is undertaken during coding operations, and corrections are made where necessary.

The Census form may be completed by one household member on behalf of others. Incorrect answers can be introduced to the Census form if the respondent does not understand the question or does not know the correct information about other household members. Many of these errors remain in the final data.

More detailed information on data quality is available in the 2006 Census Dictionary (cat. no. 2901.0), in the section titled Managing Census Quality.




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