IER

The Index of Economic Resources (IER) focuses on the financial aspects of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage, by summarising variables related to income and wealth. This index excludes education and occupation variables because they are not direct measures of economic resources. It also misses some assets such as savings or equities which, although relevant, could not be included because this information was not collected in the 2011 Census.
A low score indicates a relative lack of access to economic resources in general. For example, an area may have a low score if there are:
- many households with low income, or many households paying low rent
AND
- few households with high income, or few owned homes

A high score indicates relatively greater access to economic resources in general. For example, an area may have a high score if there are:
- many households with high income, or many owned homes
AND
- few low income households, or few households paying low rent


This index is preferred in situations where the user:
- is looking specifically at access to economic resources.

An example would be where a user:
- is interested in wealth as well as income for analysis.

We do not recommend using this index if the user:
- is only interested in disadvantage, as this index measures both advantage and disadvantage
- is interested in more general advantage and disadvantage, such as the IRSAD
- is also analysing information that was included in the index, such as household income.

The variables that are included in the index can be found below. Each variable has a loading that indicates the correlation of that variable with the index. A positive loading indicates an advantaging variable where as a negative loading indicates a disadvantaging variable.

Variable	Description	Loading
HIGHBED	% of occupied private dwellings with four (4) or more bedrooms	0.74
HIGHMORTGAGE	% of occupied private dwellings paying mortgage greater than $2,800 per month	0.67
MORTGAGE	% of occupied private dwellings owning the dwelling they occupy (with a mortgaged on the main dwelling)	0.66
INC_HIGH	% of people with stated annual household equivalised income greater than $52,000	0.63
UNINCORP	% of occupied private dwellings with at least one person who is an Owner of an Unincorporated Enterprise	0.49
OWNING	% of occupied private dwellings owning dwelling without a mortgage	0.33
GROUP	% of occupied private dwellings who are group occupied private dwellings	-0.31
OVERCROWD	% of occupied private dwellings requiring one (1) or more extra bedrooms	-0.51
UNEMP_RATIO	% of people aged 15 years and over who are unemployed	-0.57
LONE	% of occupied private dwellings that are lone occupied private dwellings	-0.66
ONEPARENT	% of one-parent families with dependent offspring only	-0.66
LOWRENT	% of occupied private dwellings paying rent less than $166 per week (excluding $0 per week)	-0.72
NOCAR	% of occupied private dwellings with no car	-0.77
INC_LOW	% of people with stated annual household equivalised income between $1 and $20,799	-0.79

Note - The loadings are closely related to the variable weights used in the construction of the index. For details, please refer to Chapter 4.1 in the Technical Paper.

The table below shows variables that were initially considered for the index, but were subsequently dropped (excluded) due to low loadings (not adding enough value to the final index). For more information, please refer to Chapter 4.3 in the Technical Paper.

Variable	Description
HIGHRENT	% of occupied private dwellings paying rent greater than $370 per week

Previous Page | Next Page