Australian Bureau of Statistics
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This Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) page addresses some specific issues relating to SEIFA 2011. Answers to some more general FAQs relating to SEIFA are available on the Census pages.

What impact does the introduction of the ASGS (new geography standard) have on SEIFA?
Are the methods used to produce SEIFA 2011 the same as for past releases of SEIFA?
How does the ABS define advantage and disadvantage for SEIFA 2011?
Have there been any changes to the variables considered for inclusion in the indexes?
Are there any changes in the way SEIFA is presented in the output spreadsheets?
How can I map SEIFA 2011?
Why are there two SA1 codes on the SA1 level thematic maps?


What impact does the introduction of the ASGS (new geography standard) have on SEIFA?
SEIFA 2011 is released according to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). This is a change from past versions of SEIFA, which used the Australian Standard Geographic Classification (ASGC). The main implication of this change for SEIFA is that the new base unit for analysis is the Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1), rather than the Census Collection District (CD) used in the past.

Index scores for larger geographic areas have also been produced by taking population-weighted averages of constituent SA1s.

Are the methods used to produce SEIFA 2011 the same as for past releases of SEIFA?
The methods used are generally the same, however there has been a small but positive refinement to the exclusion rules to ensure a reliable index score is obtained for as many areas as possible. Exclusion rules determine which areas do not receive an index score because of low populations or poor quality data.

Due to the refinement of the exclusion rules, an area can receive an index score for one index and not another depending on the make-up of its variables. For SEIFA 2006, if an area did not receive an index score, it did not receive an index score for any of the four indexes.
How does the ABS define advantage and disadvantage for SEIFA 2011?
For the purpose of SEIFA, the ABS continues to broadly define relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage in terms of people's access to material and social resources, and their ability to participate in society.

This is the same definition used in SEIFA 2006.
Have there been any changes to the variables considered for inclusion in the indexes?
Although Census 2011 collected the same variables as Census 2006, some newly derived SEIFA variables have been considered (children in jobless families, unengaged youth), and a number of variables (related to household tenure, education and internet access) have had some definitional changes. Some variables were also updated in line with updated classification standards. Variables using cut-off values in their definitions, such as high and low income, were updated appropriately.

Of particular note to users of past versions of SEIFA, the IRSD no longer contains the variable relating to the proportion of people identifying as Indigenous in an area. More information on this issue can be found in Section 3.5.3 of the SEIFA 2011 Technical Paper.
Are there any changes in the way SEIFA is presented in the output spreadsheets?
More information on the distribution of SA1 scores within larger areas has been included in the output spreadsheets to enable more informative and detailed analyses. For a more detailed description of this new output, please see Data.
How can I map SEIFA 2011?
For the first time, SEIFA has been released in KMZ format. These files can be read into Google Earth® to provide thematic maps of the four indexes at different geographical levels. For more information, please see Mapping with Google Earth®.
Why are there two SA1 codes on the SA1 level thematic maps?
Between 2006 and 2011 Censuses the Australian Standard Geographic Classification (ASGC) was replaced by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) which is the Australian Bureau of Statistics' new geographical framework. This means that the base geographic area used in SEIFA has changed from Census Collection District (CD) to Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1).

SA1s are not named. They are identified either by an 11-digit fully hierarchical code, or by a truncated 7-digit code comprising the State and Territory (S/T), Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and SA1 identifiers. The truncated 7-digit codes are used for the SEIFA datacubes for consistency with other Census products, however the 11-digit code is also included on the thematic maps.

For more information on Statistical Area Level 1s, please see the ASGS page.