Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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POSTCODE


Technical name: Person (address) - Australian Postcode, code (Postcode datafile) {NNNN}
METeOR identifier: 287224
METeOR link: http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/287224
METeOR definition: The numeric descriptor for a postal delivery area, aligned with locality, suburb or place for the address of a person.

Scope
Inclusions: For all children enrolled in a preschool program include:

• The postcode of the child's parent or guardian, with whom the child spends the majority of their time.

• The postcode for a post office box of the child's parent or guardian.

• The postcode of any other parent or guardian of the child that is not the parent or guardian with whom the child spends the majority of their time.

• Children not enrolled in a preschool program.

• Suburb, town, locality name (Child)

• Address line (Child)

• Australian state/ territory identifier (Child)

• The Postcode for the child should be reported using the concept of 'usual residence', which is nominally defined as 'the place where the person has or intends to live for 6 months or more'.

• Operationally, the address details of the child's parent or guardian are recorded as it is assumed that the child lives with the parent or guardian and it is infeasible for children in scope of this collection to self-report. It is also not operationally possible to confirm whether or not the address provided on the service provider records is the place that the parent or guardian has or intends to live for 6 months or more, in accordance with the nominal definition of 'usual residence'.

9999 - Not stated/inadequately described

	Edit specifications	Edit resolution
1.	If field is blank.	Provide a valid postcode, otherwise amend to code ‘9999’.
2.	If field contains text of character length is greater than 4.	Provide a valid postcode.

• Postcode should reflect the place of usual residence of the parent or guardian with whom the child spends the majority of their time, as specified on the child's enrolment form.

• If the child spends 50% with one parent/guardian and 50% with the other, record the 1st postcode recorded.

• Include those children who are living outside of the jurisdiction's borders, if the child attends preschool within the jurisdiction. For example, a child living in Queanbeyan that attends a preschool within Canberra would be recorded within the ACT jurisdictional data set, not the NSW data set.

• For children boarding at a boarding school, report the postcode of the child's parent or guardian, not the boarding school.

• If a jurisdiction is able to accurately code complete address information to both CD and MB/SA1, for the data elements Area of usual residence - ASGC 2010 (Collection District) and Area of usual residence - ASGS 2011 (Mesh Block/Statistical Area Level 1), there is no requirement to provide this data element. However, if jurisdictions do not provide Postcode in addition to both CD and MB/SA1 codes, detailed information on jurisdictional geo-coding process and validations should be provided to the ABS.