2033.0.55.001 - Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia, 2011 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/03/2013   
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What is SEIFA?



The 2011 Census of Population and Housing provides information on a broad range of social and economic aspects of the Australian population. People using census data are often interested in an overview or summary measure of Census data, rather than looking at individual items. Socio Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) is one such summary measure.

SEIFA is a suite of four indexes that have been created from social and economic Census information. Each index ranks geographic areas across Australia in terms of their relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. The four indexes each summarise a slightly different aspect of the socio-economic conditions in an area.

The indexes can be used for a number of different purposes, including targeting areas for business and services, strategic planning and social and economic research (for more indepth examples see How to Use SEIFA). For each index, every geographic area in Australia is given a SEIFA score which measures how relatively ‘advantaged’ or ‘disadvantaged’ that area is compared with other areas in Australia.

The four indexes in SEIFA 2011 are:


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