GREATER CAPITAL CITY STATISTICAL AREA (GCCSA)

Greater Capital City Statistical Areas (GCCSA) are geographical areas built from Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4) and are designed to represent the functional extent of each of the eight State and Territory capital cities. They were designed to reflect labour markets using the 2011 Census travel to work data. Because of this the GCCSAs reflect the labour market of each capital city. The labour market is sometimes used as a de-facto measure of the functional extent of a city as it contains the majority of the commuting population.

This definition is designed to include the population within the urban area of the city, as well as people who regularly socialise, shop or work within the city, and live in small towns and rural areas surrounding the city. It is important to note that GCCSAs do not define the built up edge of the city. They provide a stable definition for these cities and are designed for the output of a range of social and economic survey data. Within each State and Territory, the area not defined as being part of the Greater Capital City is represented by a Rest of State region.

There are 16 spatial GCCSA regions covering the whole of Australia without gaps or overlaps. These consist of 8 regions representing each of the Australian State and Territory capital cities, and 8 regions covering the rest of each State and the Northern Territory. The ACT only has one GCCSA region for the entire Territory. The category of Other Territories in GCCSA includes the Other Territories of Jervis Bay, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island.

In addition to these 16 spatial GCCSA regions are 18 non-spatial GCCSA special purpose codes, adding to a total of 34 GCCSAs. These special purpose codes include Migratory–Offshore–Shipping and No Usual Address codes for each State and Territory.

GCCSAs are not bound by a minimum population size criterion.


DELIMITATION OF GCCSA

Population

GCCSAs do not have population criteria.

Functional

As GCCSAs are designed to represent a socio-economic definition of each of the eight State and Territory capital cities, this means the greater capital city boundary includes people who regularly socialise, shop or work within the city, but live in the small towns and rural areas surrounding the city. It does not define the built up edge of the city.

GCCSA NAMES

GCCSAs are named according to the cities they represent, for example, Greater Sydney.

The remainder of the State and Territory is named Rest of <State>, for example, Rest of NSW.

The exceptions to this are the ACT, as the whole of the ACT is included in the GCCSA, and the OTs, which do not have a capital city.

GCCSA CODING STRUCTURE

A GCCSA is identified by a 5-character alphanumeric code. This comprises a 1-digit State and Territory identifier followed by a 4-character GCCSA identifier that is unique within each State and Territory.

Example 1:

1GSYD Greater Sydney
- State and Territory identifier: 1
- GCCSA identifier: GSYD

Example 2:

Rest of NSW - 1RNSW
- State and Territory identifier: 1
- GCCSA identifier: RNSW

Special Purpose GCCSA

There are non-spatial GCCSAs for Migratory - Offshore - Shipping and No Usual Address in each State and Territory.