1270.0.55.004 - Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 4 - Significant Urban Areas, Urban Centres and Localities, Section of State, July 2016  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 09/10/2017   
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OVERVIEW

This publication updates the Urban Centres and Localities (UCL), Section of State (SOS) / Section of State Range (SOSR) and Significant Urban Areas (SUA) within the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). These regions provide definitions and classifications of urban areas within Australia for the purpose of statistical analysis.

The ASGS provides a framework of statistical areas used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and other organisations to enable the publication of statistics that are comparable and geospatially integrated. The ASGS provides users with a coherent set of standard areas that they can use to access, visualise and analyse statistics.

The ASGS is split into two parts, ABS Structures and Non ABS Structures. The ABS structures are areas that the ABS designs specifically for outputting statistics. The UCLs, SOS, SOSR and SUAs are part of the ABS Structures and their relationship to other ABS statistical areas is shown in diagram 1 below.


Diagram 1: ASGS ABS Structures

The diagram reflects the hierarchical nature of the ASGS ABS Structures.  It shows how the regions relate to each other and highlights where the UCL, SOS/SOSR and SUA Structures fit within the ASGS.


This is the fourth of five volumes that make up the 2016 ASGS. The 2016 edition of the ASGS is the second edition of the ASGS, updating the first edition released in 2011. This second edition includes changes to statistical areas to account for growth and change.

The 2016 ASGS will be used for the 2016 Census of Population and Housing and progressively introduced into other ABS data collections. The ABS encourages the use of the ASGS by other organisations to improve the comparability and usefulness of statistics generally, and in analysis and visualisation of statistical and other data.