Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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STATISTICAL LINKAGE KEY


Technical name: Record - linkage key, code 581 XXXXXDDMMYYYYN
METeOR identifier: 349895
METeOR link: http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/349895
METeOR definition: A key that enables two or more records belonging to the same individual to be brought together. It is represented by a code consisting of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th characters of a person's family name, the 2nd and 3rd letters of the persons' given name, the day, month and year when the person was born and the sex of the person, concatenated in that order.

Scope:
Inclusions: For all children enrolled in a preschool program, include in the following order:

• the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th letters of the child's family name.

• the 2nd and 3rd letters of the child's given name.

• the day, month and year of birth of the child, concatenated in that order to form the child's date of birth.

• the sex of the child.

• Children not enrolled in a preschool program.

• Exclude the following components:

• the 1st, 4th, 6th and any subsequent letters of the child's family name.
• the 1st, 4th and subsequent characters of the child's given name
• hyphens, apostrophes or spaces which may form part of a child's family name of given name

• Date of birth

• Letters of family name

• Letters of given name

• Sex

• The statistical linkage key enables counting the number of children and the preschool programs they received, without counting the same child more than once. The intention of this data element is to create a unique key for each child, however in practice it is possible for a derived SLK to exactly match the derived SLK of another child or children. In this small percentage of cases, additional available data can be used to confirm the validity of a match. For more information on matching SLKs and how the ABS recommends they are flagged, see Chapter 1, Collection Specifications.

	Edit specifications	Edit resolution
1.	If field is blank.	Provide a valid SLK.
2.	If character length is greater than 14.	Provide a valid SLK.

• Date of birth

• Letters of family name

• Letters of given name

• Sex