1410.0 - Data by Region, 2013-18  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 17/01/2020   
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Overview

This release of Data by Region presents various data for 2013-2018 and Census data for 2011 and 2016.

Geographical Coverage

Data is available for:

    • Australia
    • States and Territories
    • Greater Capital City Statistical Areas
    • Statistical Areas 2, 3 and 4
    • Local Government Areas

For more information, see the Statistical Geography page of the ABS website, Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas and Australian Statistical Geography Standard, Volume 3 - Non-ABS Structures.

Source

Data is sourced from a wide variety of collections, both ABS and non-ABS. When analysing these statistics, care needs to be taken as time periods, definitions, methodologies, scope and coverage can differ across collections.

Collection method

Data presented in this product are sourced from administrative datasets, the Census of Population and Housing, and various ABS surveys.

Updated data series

Previous releases are available via the 'Past & Future Releases' tab of this product. Care should be taken in comparing data within previous and current releases of Data by Region as:
    • some data have been revised
    • releases prior to November 2019 may use earlier editions of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS)
    • releases prior to 2011 are based on the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC)

Updates to this latest release are summarised in the following table.

Data SeriesChange

Estimated Resident Population (incl. Working Age Population, Median Age) 2018 data added, new 5 year age group number and percentage data items added for 2013-2018

Residential Property Prices2017 and 2018 data added

Religious Affiliation Other Spiritual Beliefs presented separately to No Religion, Secular Beliefs

Youth (15-19 Years) Engagement in Work/StudyAdded items: Working (away from work) and studying full-time and Other - Fully engaged

Labour Force StatusAdded items: Employed, Not in the Labour Force, Labour Force Status not stated and Total overseas born population aged 15 years and over

Personal IncomeData on income amounts presented in $m instead of $, 2017 data added

Gross Capital Gains2017 data added

HELP Repayments2017 data added

Private Health2017 data added

Gifts/Donations2017 data added

Selected Government Pensions and Allowances 2018 service pensions data added, missing pensions data for selected LGAs added in for 2013-2017

Early Childhood - Enrolment and Attendance in Preschool Programs2018 data added, corrections to data on Children Attending a Preschool Program

Jobs in Australia 2017 data added, LGA 2013 to 2016 data added

Method of Travel to WorkAdded totals for people who travelled to work by car, by public transport, revised total for used one method, added used one method items: Tram, Ferry, Taxi , Truck, Car

Access to Internet at Home Added inadequately described or not stated category

Unpaid Child CareAdded not stated category

Dwelling CountsAdded items: Dwelling structure not stated and Total private dwellings

Tenure TypeAdded items: Tenure Type not stated and Other tenure type

Registered Motor VehiclesCorrected Total Registered Motor Vehicles to include vehicles where Year of Manufacture invalid or not stated

Religious Affiliation of Persons Born Overseas Other Spiritual Beliefs presented separately to No Religion, Secular Beliefs

Occupation of Persons Born OverseasAdded inadequately described or not stated category

Labour Force Statistics of Persons Born Overseas Added items: Employed, Not in the Labour Force, Labour Force Status not stated and Total overseas born population aged 15 years and over, revised participation rate

Protected Land Areas2018 data added

Solar InstallationsAccumulative total for 2001-2018 added



How the data is processed

Accuracy

For further information on the accuracy of data items see Concepts, sources and methods.

Geographical correspondences

The use of geographical correspondences enables data to be converted from one type of geographical region to another. Correspondences are usually provided as conversion factors based on relative population distributions and/or land area shares.

The application of correspondences allows:
    • the source data to be more easily compared with standard ABS output
    • the source data to be output for other standard ABS geographical areas such as Statistical Areas 2-4 and Local Government Areas (LGA)
    • extra flexibility, in that data can be provided for a variety of geographies of interest to data users

Limitations
In applying the correspondences it is assumed that the particular characteristics of any data item are uniformly distributed across the region. Therefore, data produced by correspondences may not truly reflect the distribution of the characteristics of the population.

In some cases, where the same region is split across two or more new regions and there are no other contributing regions, distinct numerical estimates will be derived but rates or averages will be identical for each new region (as these will be equivalent to the original rate or average of the contributing regions).

Some official postcodes (such as Post Office boxes, etc.) do not correspond to residential areas but may still have been reported under the current home address field in certain administrative data series. Data for these and other 'invalid' postcodes - such as those due to incorrect reporting or processing errors - are included in state and territory totals or for Australia where the state or territory was not known.

In addition to these limitations please note:
    • conversion factors are usually based on total population only but have been applied across all data items in a series.
    • figures produced by correspondences have been rounded. Therefore, there may be small differences between the sum of the component items and the totals shown.

While care was taken in producing the correspondences the ABS cannot guarantee the accuracy of data produced by correspondences. ASGS correspondences can be found on the Statistical Geography page of the ABS website.

How the data is released

Data by Region can be accessed as:
    • data cubes, presented in a time series spreadsheet format for each themed category as listed below
    • interactive map, where the interface enables users to search for and explore data within regions across Australia, refer to: https://itt.abs.gov.au/itt/r.jsp?databyregion&ref=CTA2
    • ABS.Stat, where users are able to create customised data tables

Data can be found across the following categories:
    • Population & People
    • Economy & Industry
    • Income (including Government Allowances)
    • Education & Employment
    • Health & Disability
    • Family & Community
    • Persons Born Overseas
    • Land & Environment

There is a standard set of data for each region type, depending on the availability of statistics for particular geographies.

Confidentialisation of data

Some data values have been randomly adjusted or suppressed to avoid the release of confidential data. In some cases small cells have been randomly altered to zero. Care should be taken when interpreting cells with small numbers or zeros.

Data item list

For further information on data items see the List of data items.


Concepts, sources and methods

While information on the data and concepts are included below and in the accompanying glossary, users should note that the information listed here is not exhaustive, more detailed information about the data can be obtained by referring to the relevant data source listed for each dataset.

Income data comparisons

Care should be taken in comparing income data from different sources. Some of the differences between the personal income data sourced from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and income data sourced from the Census of Population and Housing are highlighted in the table below:

DifferencePersonal Income (ATO)Census of Population and Housing
PopulationIndividuals with income reported to the ATO (approximately 13 million records per year), either through a personal income tax form, or through a PAYG statement.All persons aged 15 years and above (approximately 20 million records)
Method of reportingReporting in a personal income tax return, often with a group certificate or other supporting evidence of income, where required by ATO. Reporting is in more detail, showing different sources, and dollar values.Self reported income is reported in ranges on a Census form
Missing incomeSome income is not reported to the ATO. 
People who earn less than the tax free threshold or receive payments that are not assessable (such as some Government benefits and allowances) may not report to the ATO.
No missing income - the Census form asks people to include all income when answering income questions.


Agricultural commodities

Agricultural commodities Data is estimates obtained from the Agricultural Census. Data from both 2011 and 2016 Censuses are presented. The scope of the 2016 Agricultural Census was all businesses undertaking agricultural activity recorded on the ABS Business Register above a minimum size cut off of $40,000. For the 2011 Agricultural Census, the cut-off was $5,000; 2011 data in Data by Region was re-derived using the $40,000 threshold. The measure of size was based on the ABS' Estimated Value of Agricultural Operations or, if this was not available, a derived value based on Business Activity Statement turnover.

Variability and standard error
Since not all of the businesses that were selected provided data, there are estimated data components. The estimates are subject to sampling variability; that is, they may differ from the figures that would have been produced if all businesses had provided data.

One measure of the likely difference is given by the standard error which indicates the extent to which an estimate might vary by chance because only a sample was taken or had responded. There are about two chances in three that a 'sample' estimate will differ by less than one standard error from the figure that would have been obtained if all businesses had responded, and about nineteen chances in twenty that the difference will be less than two standard error. In agricultural data, sampling variability of the estimates is measured by the relative standard error (RSE) which is obtained by expressing the standard error as a percentage of the estimate to which it refers.

In Data by Region, agriculture data with an RSE greater than 50% are not presented.

For further information see Agricultural Commodities, Australia.

Births and deaths

Data is sourced from the Births, Australia and Deaths, Australia publications.

Building approvals

Data for building approvals are compiled from:
    • permits issued by local government authorities and other principal certifying authorities
    • contracts let or day labour work authorised by Commonwealth, state, semi-government and local government authorities
    • major building activity in areas not subject to normal administrative approval (e.g. building on remote mine sites)

Coverage is:
    • all residential building approvals valued at $10,000 or more
    • all approved non-residential building jobs valued at $50,000 or more

For further information see Building Approvals, Australia.

Census data

See below for information on selected Census items included in this product. For information on other Census items please see the Glossary, the Census of Population and Housing home page and the Census Dictionary.

Australian citizenship
Records whether a person has Australian citizenship and was born overseas.

Commuting to work
Commuting distance provides a measurement of the distance travelled between a person's Mesh Block of Place of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work. An assumption in the calculation of this data is that a person has followed the shortest path with no stops when commuting to work.

Component data for Commuting to Work (i.e. distance by age and sex, and by industry) is only available at ASGS levels, and not at LGA level. LGA regions will only display whole Average and Median Commuting distance.

Detailed information on the how commuting distances were calculated can be found on the Understanding the Census and Census Data  page.

Dwelling structure
Structure type of private dwellings. Other Dwellings include caravan, cabin or houseboat, improvised home, tent, sleepers out, and house or flat attached to a shop or office etc.

Equivalised total household income
The 'modified OECD' equivalence scale is used. Equivalised total household income can be viewed as an indicator of the economic resources available to a standardised household.

Families
Classified in terms of the relationships that exist between a single family reference person and each other member of that family.

Different types of families are distinguished (in the following order of preference) based on the presence or absence of:
    • couple relationships
    • parent-child relationships
    • child dependency relationships or other blood relationships

The family type is derived from people enumerated in the household who usually reside there and who share a familial relationship. Partners and dependent children usually present but temporarily absent are also included in this derivation. Boarders and other non-family members are excluded.

Field of study
Describes the field of study of a person's highest completed non-school qualification for persons aged 15 years and over who stated that they had completed a qualification.

Highest year of school completed
Highest level of primary or secondary schooling completed for people aged 15 years and over. Data is coded using the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001.

Homelessness
Population rates are presented as a rate per 10,000 of the total population. That is, the number of homeless persons per 10,000 persons based on their place of enumeration in the Census, excluding people at sea or in migratory or offshore regions and overseas visitors.

Caution should be taken when interpreting data for smaller regions (i.e. regions with fewer than 10,000 persons).

The homelessness rate includes persons:
    • living in improvised dwellings, tents or sleeping out
    • in supported accommodation for the homeless
    • staying temporarily with other households
    • living in boarding houses
    • in other temporary lodgings
    • living in 'severely' crowded dwellings

Further details can be found in the publication Census of Population and Housing: Estimating Homelessness (cat no. 2049.0).

Industry of employment
Applicable to all employed people aged 15 years and over.

Industry is coded using the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006. The industry code assigned is based on the main job held during the week prior to Census night.

Labour force
Two occupation questions are used in the Census. The first of these asks for occupation title, while the second asks for the main tasks usually performed by the person in their occupation. Collecting both occupation title and task information ensures more accurate coding of occupations for employed people aged 15 years and over.

Occupations are coded using the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). The Occupation code assigned is based on the main job held during the week prior to Census Night.

Non-school qualifications
Describes the level of a person's highest completed non-school qualification (e.g. bachelor degree, diploma) for persons aged 15 years and over.

The full classification for levels of education and fields of study, together with an explanation of the conceptual basis of the classification, can be found in the publication Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001.

Occupation of employed persons
Applicable to persons aged 15 years and over. Two occupation questions are used in the Census. The first of these asks for occupation title, while the second asks for the main tasks usually performed by the person in their occupation. Collecting both occupation title and task information ensures more accurate coding of occupations.

Overseas born
Country of birth is the basis for determining if a person was born overseas. The Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC) was used to classify responses for birthplace of individuals. People are classified as Overseas-born on the Census of Population and Housing if it was stated:
    • they were born in a country other than Australia
    • they were born at sea
    • their response was classified 'Inadequately described'
    • their response was classified 'Not elsewhere classified.

For the 2016 Census, the definition of Australia includes the states and territories and the other territories of Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Jervis Bay Territory and Norfolk Island. In 2011 and previous Censuses, Norfolk Island was not included in the definition of geographic Australia.

Religious affiliation
The Australian Standard Classification of Religious Groups (ASCRG), 2016 was used to classify responses for a person's religious affiliation. Answering this Census question is optional.

Rent and mortgage payments
Includes site fees if the dwelling is a caravan, or manufactured home in a caravan park, or a manufactured home estate.

Social marital status & registered marital status
Applicable to persons aged 15 years and over. If registered marital status is not stated it is imputed.

All persons aged 15 years and over, who are usually resident and present in the household on Census night and who are not in a couple relationship are identified as 'Not married'. 

Socio Economic Indexes of Areas (SEIFA)
SEIFA is an ABS product that ranks areas in Australia according to relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. The indexes are based on information from the five-yearly Census of Population and Housing.

SEIFA 2016 consists of four indexes which are a summary of a different subset of Census variables and focuses on a different aspect of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.
    • The Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD).
    • The Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD).
    • The Index of Education and Occupation (IEO).
    • The Index of Economic Resources (IER).

Deciles divide a distribution into ten equal groups. In the case of SEIFA, the State deciles data compares the region with all the other regions in that State or Territory. The Australian deciles data compare every region across Australia. The distribution of scores is divided into ten equal groups with the:
    • lowest scoring 10% of areas are given a decile number of 1
    • second-lowest 10% of areas are given a decile number of 2 and so on
    • highest 10% of areas which are given a decile number of 10

For further information see Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia.

Speaks language other than English
These data identify the language spoken at home for people who were born overseas, and are coded using the Australian Standard Classification of Languages (ASCL). Only one language is coded for each person.

Tenure type
Applicable to classifiable occupied private dwellings i.e. excludes non-classifiable households such as visitors only.

'Rented' includes rent-free, 'Owned with a mortgage' includes being purchased under shared equity scheme and 'Other tenure type' includes being occupied under a life tenure scheme.

Year of arrival in Australia
Applicable to those born overseas who will be in Australia for more than one year. The year 2016 refers to the period from 1st January 2016 to 9th August 2016 only.

The data shown exclude persons who did not state their country of birth and persons born in Australia (includes Other Territories).

Youth engagement in work or study
Relates to persons aged 15-19 years and whether the person was working or attending a school or any other educational institution.
Data for 'Other - Fully engaged' includes:
    • employed full time, type of study not stated
    • study part time, employed away from work
    • study part time/full time status not stated, employed away from work
    • employed part time, Study part time/full time status not stated

Count of businesses, entries and exits

Counts of businesses are based on snapshots of actively trading businesses as at 30 June in each reference year and are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Business Register (ABSBR).

The population includes businesses that are:
    • employing
    • non-employing
    • single location
    • multiple location

Users should be aware that data for individual business locations are not currently available from the register. It is not currently possible to account for those businesses which operate out of multiple locations, other than at their main location. This is particularly relevant for larger businesses, which commonly establish outlets in numerous states and regions across Australia.

Exclusions
    • entities which are not considered to be actively trading in the market sector (such as Government and not for profit institutions serving households)
    • social and sporting clubs
    • charitable institutions
    • trade unions and other associations
    • other unincorporated entities
    • police services
    • fire protection and other emergency services
    • religious services
    • business and professional associations
    • labour association services
    • other interest group services
    • private households employing staff

Businesses which have not submitted a Business Activity Statement (BAS) and/or have reported zero dollar amounts over five consecutive quarters (or three consecutive years for annual BAS remitters) have been excluded.

Confidentiality
The data published have been confidentialised so as not to reveal the identity of any businesses. The confidentiality process randomly adjusts data in such a way that the sum of components will not always be equal to total counts.

For further information see Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits.

Early childhood - enrolment and attendance in preschool programs

Statistics on children aged 4 or 5 years who as at 1 July in the collection year were enrolled and attending preschool programs across Australia.

Data is soured from the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection. The Collection is derived from administrative data provided by state and territory and Australian government departments and the Catholic Education Office of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.

For the purposes of the collection, a preschool program is defined as a structured, play based learning program, delivered by a degree qualified teacher, aimed primarily at children in the year or two before they commence full-time schooling. This is irrespective of the type of institution that provides it or whether it is government funded or privately provided.

To be considered as enrolled, the child must have attended the preschool program for at least one hour during the reference period, or be absent due to illness or extended holiday leave and expected to return.

Care needs to be taken when interpreting Queensland child counts as there may be some duplication of children across different provider types. This is due to the inclusion of child aggregate data from some service providers.

Where the finer regional details of enrolments are not stated or unknown, these are included in the State/Territory totals but not shown separately elsewhere.

Further information on these statistics can be found in Preschool Education, Australia and Microdata: Preschool Education, Australia.

Estimated resident population

Estimated resident population as at 30 June is based on Census counts by place of usual residence (excluding short-term overseas visitors in Australia) with an allowance for Census net undercount to which are added the estimated number of Australian residents temporarily overseas at the time of the Census.

For further information see Regional Population Growth, Australia.

Gifts/donations reported by taxpayers

These Data is sourced from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and relate to gifts or donations reported by taxpayers for the financial year.

Gross capital gains

These Data is sourced from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). Capital gains cover the sale of assets such as:
    • land
    • units in a unit trust and other investment properties
    • company shares
    • licenses
    • rights
    • options and leases
    • various collectables (paintings, antiques, coins, jewellery and similar) with an original market value of over $500
    • personal use assets such as boats, furniture and electrical goods with an original value of over $10,000

Capital gains are not part of the existing ABS investment income, other income or total income framework, but are presented here as supplementary information of interest. Additional information on this topic is available from Capital Gains and Exemptions.

Gross value of agricultural production

The value of agricultural production estimates are derived by the multiplication of price and quantity of individual agricultural commodities. Remaining commodity data (livestock disposals and livestock products excluding eggs) are obtained from other ABS collections with some information from non-ABS sources.

Price information refers to the average unit value of a given commodity realised in the market place. More specifically, price information for livestock slaughtering and wool is obtained from ABS collections. Price information for other commodities is obtained from non-ABS sources, including marketing authorities and industry sources.

The estimates of gross value are subject to sampling error. (See above or a discussion of sampling error in Agriculture data). In Data by Region, agriculture data with a relative standard error (RSE) greater than 50% are not presented.

Further information on value of agricultural production can be obtained in the ABS publication Value of Agricultural Commodities Produced, Australia.

Health

The health Data is modelled estimates based on random effects logistic regression models fitted to data from the 2011-12 and 2014-15 National Health Survey (NHS), 2011 Australian Census of Population and Housing, 2012 and 2015 Estimated Resident Population (ERP), and aggregated administrative data such as from the Department of Social Services.

This data presents the modelled count and percentage of persons living in private dwellings, with the following health characteristics.
    • Males and females aged 18 years and over who were current smokers.
    • Persons aged 18 years and over with high or very high psychological distress, based on the Kessler 10 (K10) scale.
    • Persons aged 15 years and over, with fair or poor self-assessed health.
    • Persons aged 18 years and over who had high blood pressure (measured systolic/diastolic blood pressure was equal to or greater than 140/90 mmHg).

These modelled estimates were originally produced as a consultancy for the Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU), applying ABS methods and quality standards.

Data has been produced for Statistical Area Level 3 regions.

Higher Education Loan Program (HELP) repayments

These Data is sourced from the Australian Taxation Office and are a count of taxpayers who have made repayments on their HELP debt in the financial year.

For the compulsory HELP repayments to be made, taxpayers must be earning above the minimum repayment income threshold. Further information on repayment income thresholds for other years, and repayment rates can be found on the ATO website.

Internal and overseas migration

Internal migration is.the movement of people between and within Australia's states and territories and is estimated using administrative data. The main source of data used to do this is Medicare change of address information provided to the ABS by the Department of Human Services. The Medicare data used is coded directly to the ASGS and aggregated to the SA2 and LGA levels. Interstate moves are constrained to published estimates of interstate migration.

Overseas migration including arrivals and departures are prepared by breaking down state/territory level net overseas migration (NOM) arrivals and departures into sub-state areas, using information from the most recent Census. For the purposes of NOM, a person is regarded as a usual resident if they have been (or expect to be) residing in Australia for a period of 12 months or more. This 12-month period does not have to be continuous and is measured over a 16-month period. It includes all people, regardless of nationality, citizenship or legal status, who usually live in Australia, with the exception of foreign diplomatic personnel and their families.

For further information see Regional Population Growth, Australia.

Jobs in Australia

Data is for all persons who either submitted an individual tax return or individuals who had a payment summary issued by an employer for the financial year.

Conceptually, payment summary data should include most employee-employer job relationships. For a person who is an employee of several employers, each relationship is listed as a separate job.

Number of employee jobs refer to jobs for which the occupant received remuneration in wages, salary, payment in kind, or piece rates. This excludes self-employment jobs held by owner managers of unincorporated enterprises.

The sum of the individual components will not necessarily add up to the total number of employee jobs as the total includes jobs where the industry was unknown or missing.

Regions with small numbers should be interpreted with caution as random adjustment has been applied to this data.

For further information see Jobs in Australia.

Land area

Based upon the boundaries in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2016 and 2018 Local Government Areas. The area of these regions were calculated on the Albers Projection using ABS standard Geographic Information Systems software using the digital boundaries of the regions.

Median household net worth

Household net worth has been produced from findings of the 2015-16 Survey of Income and Housing (SIH). SIH collected detailed information about the income, wealth and household characteristics of persons aged 15 years and over in private dwellings throughout Australia (excluding very remote areas).

Net worth, often referred to as wealth, is the value of a household's assets less the value of its liabilities. Due to the nature of surveys, data for all levels of geography is not available. For further information see Household Income and Wealth, Australia 2015-16

Motor vehicle census

The Motor vehicle census includes all vehicles registered with a state, territory or other government motor vehicle registry for unrestricted use on public roads as at 31 January, with the following exceptions:
    • recreational vehicles such as trail bikes and sand dune buggies intended for off-road use in most states (in Victoria and Queensland these vehicles must be registered and are included in the statistics)
    • consular vehicles
    • vehicles registered by the defence forces

Includes vehicles registered at the date of the census, or had registration expire less than one month before that date. Motor vehicle census data is presented by region of owner, and based on the postcode of the owner.

The Australia total includes records that could not be allocated to a state or territory. Therefore aggregating state and territory totals will not equal the Australia total.

The sum of the individual components of vehicles will not necessarily add up to total registered motor vehicles as the total includes vehicles where the year of manufacture was not stated or invalid.

A geographic correspondence has been used in order to present the post code data on ASGS boundaries. Aggregating lower levels of the ASGS (SA2, SA3, LGA, etc.) within a state will not equal the state totals, due to the nature of corresponding data from postcodes. See Geographical correspondences for further information.

Further information can be found in Motor Vehicle Census, Australia.

Patent and trademark applicants

The numbers of patents and trademarks relate to applicants. They are a yearly aggregate of applicants at 31 December for the reference year. ABS has suppressed data for regions in certain circumstances to prevent the identification of individuals.

The patent and trademark applicants data is collected by IP Australia. Data produced by IP Australia can be sourced at data.gov.au. The SA3 level data have been created and published by the Office of the Chief Economist, based on postcode (of applicant) data provided by IP Australia. ABS has aggregated the SA3 data to create details for the SA4, GCCSA, state, territory and Australia geographic levels. As such, the SA4, GCCSA, state or territory and Australia totals of applicants are not official aggregates provided by IP Australia or the Office of the Chief Economist.

Personal income

Personal income tax data is supplied by the ATO to the ABS under the Taxation Administration Act 1953, which requires that such data is only used for the purpose of administering the Census and Statistics Act 1905. Any discussion of data limitations or weaknesses is in the context of using the data for statistical purposes, and is not related to the ability of the data to support the ATO's core operational requirements. Legislative requirements to ensure privacy and secrecy of this data have been adhered to. In accordance with the Census and Statistics Act 1905, results have been confidentialised to ensure that they are not likely to enable identification of a particular person or organisation.

The data is collated by the ATO from individual tax returns and employer payment summaries that have been lodged with lodgements captured for a 16 month period after each financial year. The data Includes employee, own unincorporated business, investment, superannuation and annuities, other income (excluding Government pensions and allowances) - and total income from these component sources. See glossary for how these items have been defined or Personal Income in Australia for more information on these income types and the line items from the tax form used to calculate them.

Coverage
For the purposes of providing statistical measures for the entire population, the ATO database has some limits to its coverage. Persons who receive an income below certain levels are not necessarily required to lodge a tax return, and some income can be exempt and therefore does not need to be reported in tax returns. As a result, Government pensions, benefits or allowances are excluded from the other income or total income. The ATO data should be regarded as an indicative but not complete picture of all individual income earned in Australia.

The Gini coefficients shown in this publication are subject to under-coverage for certain income groups and are calculated from gross personal income rather than equivalised disposable income. They can be regarded as indicative but not definitive and are not directly comparable to apparently similar ABS information at state/territory level, as per Household Income and Wealth, Australia.

Definitions
Non-lodgers have being included in the Employee income data. The ABS defines non-lodgers as individuals that have a payment summary issued by an employer but have not lodged an income tax return within the 16 month period after each financial year. Note that as the sources of income other than employee income cannot be captured for the non-lodger population, they have been excluded from the estimates of total income.

The total number of individuals in receipt of income from at least one source should not be confused with the sum of the individuals in each income category, since people can have more than one source of income in any given year.

Net income from a specific source may be positive or negative. For example, an individual may have positive income from employee income but have negative net investment income. The number of individuals for each income source includes all persons with either positive or negative net income from that source.

In this publication, main source of earners is presented as a proportion of the population in that region. If a region is particularly reliant on one source, it may be susceptible to policy or economic changes that affect that income type - hence the inclusion. Where persons receive exactly the same amount across multiple sources of income, they have been excluded from the derivation of this indicator. Persons with nil total income have also been excluded. The non-lodger population has also been excluded from this calculation as the sources of income other than employee income cannot be captured.

Further information on these statistics can be found in Personal Income in Australia.

Personal insolvencies

Counts of business-related and non-business-related personal insolvencies by region are provided for reference year ended 30 June.

Data is provided by the Australian Financial Security Authority (AFSA) from their extensive personal insolvency collection. Unless an individual declares their situation to be directly related to a proprietary interest in a business, all other insolvencies (even those for which details are not stated) are classified as Non-business related.

A confidentialisation process has been applied to these data. Official statistics and more information can be found on the AFSA website.

Private health

Private health Data is sourced from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) and relate to taxpayers who report having private health insurance within the financial year.

A full estimate of how many adults in Australia have private health insurance can be obtained from the ABS National Health Survey - see Health Service Usage and Health Related Actions, Australia.

Protected land areas

Refers to areas of land dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biodiversity. Sourced from the Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD), Commonwealth of Australia, maintained and updated by the Department of the Environment and Energy.

The Department has especially converted CAPAD data (for Reported, Gazetted Areas) into ABS Statistical Geographies - such as Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and Local Government Areas (LGA) - to match the geographic preferences of the ABS Data by Region dataset. Where there is no Gazetted Area for a record, the GIS (Geographic Information System) Area (based on current spatial data and an Albers Equal Area Projection for Australia) has been sourced to enable geographic conversions.

The process of splitting CAPAD into geographic regions can generate many small areas. Slivers of land - with an area less than 1 hectare and which are less than 2 per cent of the unsplit protected area - have been removed. Therefore there is a small difference between area totals for States when compared with LGA or SA2 regions. Also, the numbers of Protected Land Areas (PLAs) should be considered as indicative only.

Data is presented for:
    • number of Protected Land Areas (PLAs) by selected types (for example, Nature Reserves, Indigenous Protected Areas);
    • area of PLAs (hectares); and PLAs (hectares) as a percentage of total regional land area.

Other data, for example relating to PLA types, land governance arrangements and marine regions, are readily available from the Department of the Environment. For more information please refer to Department of Environment and Energy CAPAD.

Residential property prices

Data refers to median price and transfer counts of established houses and attached dwellings for year ended 30 June of each reference year.

Data are not presented prior to 2017 for regions where the geographical boundary changed from ASGS 2011 to ASGS 2016.

All Australian residential property sales Data is now supplied to the ABS by CoreLogic RP Data. This dataset is a combination of residential property sales data obtained from State and Territory Land Titles Office or Valuers General Offices in each capital city (collectively referred to as VGs) and real estate agents data provided to CoreLogic RP Data. The ABS applies classifications to the dataset provided by CoreLogic RP Data to create the residential property sales dataset, from which these statistics are produced. Caution should be taken when interpreting data for regions where there are a small number of transfers.

Dwellings in scope include:
    • ordinary detached houses
    • a house with an office
    • a house with a flat
    • rural residential houses (within a capital city and not part of a farming business)
    • semi-detached, row and terrace houses
    • townhouses
    • flats, units and apartments

For further information see Residential Property Price Indexes: Eight Capital Cities.

Selected government pensions and allowances

All government pensions and allowances refer to a point in time (i.e. the number of persons who received payment as at the pay period closest to 30 June each year) and therefore do not represent all the customers in receipt of payments during the entire financial year. Unless otherwise specified, data is sourced from the Department of Social Services Demographic Data available on data.gov.au.

Where a person could not be allocated to a region within a state or territory, they have been included in the totals for the states and territories. Where a person could not be allocated to a state or territory, they have been included in the total for Australia.

For privacy reasons, all administrative data from non-ABS sources has been confidentialised before being supplied to the ABS. The cells suppressed or altered through confidentialisation within Data by Region may differ to other publications that contain this data.

Some payments are described in further detail below, for other items see the Glossary. More information about specific payments can be accessed from the Department of Social Services and the Department of Veterans' Affairs, or from data.gov.au.

Age Pension
Age Pension age depends on the individual's date of birth. please see Age Requirements for more information.

The majority of Age Pensions are paid by Centrelink. Age pensioners who also receive a Disability Pension from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA) have the choice of having their Age Pension paid by either the DVA or Centrelink and there are two separate data items, Age Pension and Age Pension (DVA). The Centrelink Age Pension Data is provided by DSS and include overseas pension recipients in the Australian total.

Disability Support Pension
Designed to give people an adequate means of support if they are unable to work for at least 15 hours per week at or above the relevant minimum wage, independent of a program or support. Includes overseas pension recipients and persons whose address could not be coded to a specific region in the total for Australia.

Family Tax Benefit
Around 75% of all families with at least one dependent child aged under 16 years are eligible to receive Family Tax Benefit.

Family Tax Benefit Part A can be paid to a parent, guardian or an approved care organisation to help with the costs of raising children. There are eligibility requirements involving the age and educational status of the child, residency and income.

Family Tax Benefit Part B is an extra payment for single parents and families with one main income to help with the costs of raising children. Part B is limited to families where the primary earner has an adjusted taxable income of $100,000 or less per financial year (from June 2015, previously was $150,000 or less). There are also additional eligibility requirements.

Approximately three-quarters of FTB customers receive both Part A and Part B. Data presented in regard to Family Tax Benefit refer only to fortnightly instalment customers paid directly by Centrelink. The information excludes an additional 10% (approximately) who are paid by a lump sum which is claimable at the end of a financial year. The Family Tax Benefit data for the latest year are preliminary only. Users should refrain from making direct comparisons with data from earlier years in past issues of Data by Region (formerly known as the National Regional Profile).

Solar installations

Small-scale solar panel installations and solar water heater installations data have been sourced from the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) and are presented as an accumulative total from 2001. The Clean Energy Regulator administers the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) as part of the federal governments Renewable Energy Target (RET). The SRES is governed by the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 and the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Regulations 2001.

Includes new, upgraded and replacement installations, and includes stand-alone (off-grid) installations. The data only represent installations that have passed the CERs auditing process and relevant standards, and have had Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs) validly created under the SRES. The data do not include installations that have resulted in failed STC creation, or are pending STC creation.

Installations under the SRES may include residential and commercial systems, and include installations of no more than 100 kilowatts in panel array capacity.

CER data is based on the postcode of the installation, and a geographic correspondence has been applied by ABS to create data on ASGS and LGA boundaries. See the Geographical correspondences for further information.

The Australian total of small-scale solar panel installations and solar water heater installations has been taken directly from CER source data, whereas all other geographical boundaries have been converted from postcode data. Therefore aggregations of the regional data may not exactly match the Australian total.

Tourist accommodation

The number of tourist accommodation establishments are derived from the quarterly Survey of Tourist Accommodation (STA). The STA is a mail-out collection that completely enumerates all in-scope accommodation establishments within Australia.

The in-scope establishments presented in this profile include:
    • hotels
    • resorts
    • motels
    • private hotels
    • guest houses
    • serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms or units

Further information can be found in Tourist Accommodation, Australia.

Water use on Australian farms

Sourced from Agricultural Census data. Data was collected from agricultural businesses on the ABS Business Register undertaking agricultural activity above a minimum size cut off of $40,000.

The estimates are based on responses to the Agricultural Census and since not all of the businesses that were selected provided data, the estimates are subject to sampling variability. That is, estimates may differ from figures that would be produced if all businesses had provided data. In Data by Region, Water Use data with a relative standard error (RSE) greater than 50% are not presented.

Area of agricultural land (ha) and Area irrigated (ha) may not correspond entirely to the region the data is assigned. In some circumstances a farm may be across more than one region, the agricultural land and area irrigated will be typically assigned to the region that the address of the farm is located.

For further information see Water Use on Australian Farms.