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Frequently asked questions about Census data

Why are Community Profile table references and DataPack csv file numbers different?

Community Profiles table reference numbers and DataPack CSV file numbers don't necessarily match. The reasons for the differences are explained below.

Community Profile tables

Community Profile table reference numbers are the references on the worksheet tabs at the bottom of the Profile tables as shown here:



Community Profile tables are designed for viewing onscreen and printing. For this reason, sometimes the tables are split into two separate Excel worksheets, resulting in two different reference numbers. For example, worksheets B01a and B01b in the Basic Community Profile include data for one table named 'Selected Person Characteristics by Sex'. As viewing and printing criteria are not relevant for DataPack CSV files, the data for the 'Person Characteristics by Sex' table is contained in one CSV file in the DataPack.

DataPack CSV files

DataPack CSV files have a limit of 200 column headings. So where one Community Profile table has more than 200 data cells there will be more than one corresponding CSV file in the DataPack. For example, the Basic Community Profile table B04 ('Age by Sex') has more than 200 data cells, so this one Community Profile table corresponds to two CSV files in the DataPack. The first 200 data cells are in the CSV file B04A and the rest are in the CSV file B04B.

The correspondence between the Community Profile table reference numbers and the DataPack CSV file numbers is shown in the Metadata file. The metadata file for each DataPack is located in the 'Metadata' folder.

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