ABS geography products

Digital boundaries, allocation files, and geographic correspondences are available in the Access and downloads section of the ASGS Edition 4 publication.

Digital boundaries, allocation files, and geographic correspondences are available in the Access and downloads section of the ASGS Edition 3 publication.

Digital boundaries, allocation files, and geographic correspondences are available in the Downloads section of each structure listed below.

• Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas
• Indigenous Structure
• Non ABS Structures
• Significant Urban Areas, Urban Centres and Localities, Section of State
• Remoteness Structure
• Correspondences

An Australian Population Grid modelled from preliminary Estimated Residential Population (ERP) is published as part of the Regional Population publication.

Land Account publications present data on land use and land cover in both physical and monetary terms. The following are links to some ABS Land Account publications.

• National Land Account, Experimental Estimates
• Land Account: Queensland, Experimental Estimates 2011 - 2016
• Land Account: Great Barrier Reef Region, Experimental Estimates, 2014
• Land Account: South Australia, Experimental Estimates, 2006 - 2011

Geospatial web service information is included in the ASGS Edition 4 publication. 

The Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) was used from 1984 to 2011 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the collection and dissemination of geographically classified statistics.

Since 1984, the ASGC was updated and released annually. This was necessary to ensure that Statistical Local Areas (SLA) were updated to reflect changes in gazetted Local Government Areas (LGA) as proclaimed by State and Territory government authorities. The ASGC provided seven hierarchies of geographical areas. Each structure was designed to suit different statistical purposes. The various ASGC structures are depicted in the ASGC structural chart.

The 2011 edition of the ASGC was the last. From 2011 onwards the ABS adopted a new statistical geography classification called the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS).

The ASGS addresses some of the shortcomings of the ASGC in that:

• it brings all of the geographic regions used by the ABS into one framework
• it is more stable - the ABS structures will remain stable between Censuses; unlike the ASGC regions which were reviewed annually
• the regions at each level of the ASGS ABS structures are more consistent in population size and are optimised for the statistical data to be released for them
• the Main Structure Statistical Area (SA) units are based on the idea of a functional area and built around whole official gazetted localities, which will result in more meaningful regions and better address coding quality
• it is based on Mesh Blocks and can therefore support more accurate statistics for a range of commonly used administrative regions such as postcodes and suburbs.

Previous Issues are located under the 'Past and Future Releases' tab of the publication.

• Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), July 2011
• Electronic Structures, July 2011
• Correspondences, July 2011
• Remoteness Area Correspondences, 2006
• Digital Boundaries, Australia, July 2011
• Digital Boundaries, Australia, 2006
• Urban Centres and Localities (UC/L) Digital Boundaries, Australia, 2006
• Remoteness Structure (RA) Digital Boundaries, Australia, 2006
• Census Geographic Areas, Australia, 2006
• ABS Postal Area Concordances, Aug 2006
• Urban Centres / Localities, 2006
• 2001 to 2006 Census Collection District Comparability Listing, Aug 2006

• Outcomes from the review of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), 2025
• Review outcomes for Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), 2020
• Information Paper: Converting Data to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard, 2012
• Australian Statistical Geography Standard Design of the Statistical Areas Level 4, Capital Cities and Statistical Areas Level 3, May 2010
• Information Paper: Outcome from The Review of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification, 2008
• Review of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification, 2007
• Mesh Blocks Digital Boundaries, Australia, 2006
• Information Paper: Draft Mesh Blocks, Australia, (Reissue), 2005
• Information Paper: Mesh Blocks, 2003
• Information Paper: ABS Views on Remoteness, 2001
• Information Paper: Outcomes of ABS Views on Remoteness Consultation, Australia, Jun 2001