The 2002-03 SIH basic CURF contains data on 19,378 persons belonging to 12,439 income units, and for 10,210 households in private dwellings. The expanded CURF contains data on 19,401 persons belonging to 12,452 income units, and for 10,211 households in private dwellings. Both CURFs include State and capital city/balance of state identifiers; income unit type; relationship in family and household; age, sex, marital status, birthplace and year of arrival in Australia; labour force details (some items for up to eight sequential months) including occupation, industry and hours worked; qualifications, student status and other details of education; details of mortgages and loans; housing costs, type of tenure and landlord, number of bedrooms and type of dwelling structure; taxes and details of weekly and annual income by fine level source of income for persons and income units and weekly and annual income for households.

The Basic CURF is available on CD-ROM or via the Remote Access Data Laboratory (RADL). The Expanded CURF is only available via the RADL.

The differences between the Basic and Expanded CURFs are listed below:

Additional data items on the Expanded CURF:

• section of state (major urban, other urban, other)
• capital city/balance of state
• remoteness
• SEIFA index of relative socio-economic disadvantage in deciles
• country of birth
• country of birth of household reference person
• current weekly household equivalised disposable income
• previous financial year household equivalised disposable income
• current weekly household equivalised gross income
• previous financial year equivalised gross income
• number of dependent children aged 10 to 12 years in the income unit
• number of dependent children aged 13 to 14 years in the income unit

• age in single years
• labour force status includes additional categories
• duration of unemployment includes single weeks up to 104 weeks
• occupation at the sub-major group level
• industry more detailed (mix between division, sub-division and combined sub-divisions)
• country of birth and year of arrival more detailed (as per standards)
• hours worked items in single hours, with topcode, instead of grouped hours
• duration of unemployment in single weeks with topcode, instead of ranges
• status in employment more detailed
• month left school in single months, not grouped
• highest post-school qualification more detailed
• number of dependent children in survey more detailed (as per 2000-01)
• age of youngest child under 15 years in the income unit more detailed
• no topcoding on the number of children of different ages but there is masking of records that will reveal topcoding details in household size (see next item)
• household size topcode of 8 or more persons, not 6 or more
• state/territory (ACT and NT available separately)
• number of earners in household more detailed (as per 2000-01)