3413.0 - Migrant Statistics News, Oct 2008  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 07/10/2008   
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STANDARD AUSTRALIAN CLASSIFICATION OF COUNTRIES (SACC) – NEW EDITION

The second edition of the Standard Australian Classification of Countries, (SACC) (cat. no. 1269.0) was released in May 2008. The SACC is a classification of countries essentially based on the concept of geographic proximity. In its structure, it groups neighbouring countries into progressively broader geographic areas on the basis of their similarity in terms of social, cultural, economic and political characteristics. The classification also provides standard alternative groupings of countries for economic and political purposes.

The SACC is intended for use in the collection, storage and dissemination of all Australian statistical data classified by country. While the ABS uses the SACC in its own statistical work, it is also available for use by other government agencies, private organisations, community groups and individuals to ensure the consistency and comparability of data series.

From time to time, the ABS issues revisions to update the SACC in response to world political change and changes to member countries of formal associations such as the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The first (1998) edition of SACC was subject to three revisions. These have been included in the second edition, which also includes:

  • an explanation of the conceptual basis of the classification
  • the structure of the classification
  • alphabetical and numerical order coding indexes for population and economic statistics
  • concordances between this edition and the first edition
  • a link between International Statistics Organisation codes and the classification codes
  • a link between the classification and the United Nations Standard Country or Area Codes

All changes to the classification are detailed in the Introduction to the second edition under the heading "Second Edition Changes". These include:
  • name change for Vietnam (was Viet Nam)
  • name change for United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man (was United Kingdom)
  • Kosovo has been added to the classification (was part of Serbia)
  • country groupings for the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Union (EU) now include Bulgaria and Romania
  • country groupings for the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union (EMU) and the Arab League have been added