Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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1. At the time of revision of the Functional Classification of Buildings (FCB), the endorsed standard for dwelling statistics was the Dwelling Structure Classification (DSC) which is used by collections such as the Census of Population and Housing and the Australian Housing Survey. The DSC covers only residential building and classifies private dwellings according to structure. The Residential division of the 1999 FCB is broadly consistent with DSC apart from the class of Separate houses where the FCB provides greater detail than DSC, and the DSC "Other dwelling" class which includes non-permanent and mobile dwellings such as caravans, tents and houseboats which are exluded from the 1999 FCB.

2. The data produced by FCB is therefore consistent with the same concepts and principles applying to the Australian Housing Survey and the Census of Population and Housing. There are however methodological differences between these economic and social collections. The economic building collections classify buildings as they are reported in on approval documents and during construction activity, and therefore provide a count of buildings according to their original stated function. Collections such as Census of Population and Housing however, are a stocktake of buildings at a specific point in time, based on how the building is used. Where the use of the building at the time of the social collection may be different to that reported on the original building approval, the social collections can result in differing dwelling counts to the economic collections.

3. The use of the term, private, has different applications in the FCB and DSC. In the FCB, buildings are further classified by ownership, according to the sector (ie public or private) of the intended owner of the buiding at the time of the approval . This classification does not apply to the DSC. The term, private dwelling, is used in DSC to indicate private occupancy.

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