2006 Census of Population and Housing - Product Brief

Census DataPacks - cat.no. 2069.0.30.001 - 2069.0.30.007
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05/08/2015 - The ABS no longer produces or sells DataPack CD-ROMs.

1. Product Description

'2006 DataPacks' contains 2006 Census of Population and Housing Community Profile data for all of Australia to the Collection District (CD) level and the matching digital boundary basemaps in generic Geographical Information System (GIS) format. The '2006 DataPacks' product contains 2006 Community Profile data in CSV format and digital boundary basemaps in both '.Mid/Mif' and 'ESRI.shp' formats.

The '2006 DataPacks' product is designed for several purposes:

for Clients to use with database or analysis systems (e.g. SQL, GIS and other mapping or tabulation software);
for Clients who require access to the Census 2006 Community Profile data & digital boundaries 'inbulk'.
for licensed 'Secondary Providers' who wish to produce a GIS products similar to 'CDATA 2001 - Full GIS'.

Note: There is no software included in this product. This product contains data, digital boundary basemap files and metadata/referencing documents to enable the user to read the data. The 'data' and 'digital boundary basemap' files are required to open in tabulation and mapping software to read both file formats. There are also metadata files provided that contain data sequencing, labelling, geographic concordances and information pertaining to both the data and digital boundary basemaps where required. Clients will be required to merge the data files with the 'sequential file' and 'cell descripter' metadata files to obtain meaningful data labels and other attributes associated with the data.

The digital boundary basemaps are used for boundary displays and overlays for area specific comparison purposes and once the data is input into a GIS, 'thematic' maps can be obtained by matching the CSV data with the digital boundary basemap file. Thematic maps are where a digital boundary and/or a set of digital boundaries are 'shaded', representing a data item and also incorporates a data 'range' to display the comparison regarding the difference in population counts between the users chosen areas.

2. Data Containment per Community Profile

The product will be available for the following profiles:

Basic Community Profile (BCP) DataPack - cat no. 2069.0.30.001
Indigenous Profile (IP) DataPack - cat no. 2069.0.30.002
Time Series Profile (TSP) DataPack - cat no. 2069.0.30.003
Place of Enumeration Profile (PEP) DataPack - cat no. 2069.0.30.004
Expanded Community Profile (XCP) DataPack - cat no. 2069.0.30.005
Working Population Profile (WPP) DataPack - cat no. 2069.0.30.006
Estimated Resident Population Profile (ERP) DataPack - cat no. 2069.0.30.007

A table indicating the availability of geographic areas at different releases is at item 4 below.

3. File format - reading a CSV file

The CSV datasets display the data in a string format ONLY separated by commas and do not exceed 200 columns in length (ie. CSV data files in the DataPacks suite are split when the sequential profile template exceeds 200 columns. In the case of table B04, there are 2 CSV data files to accommodate the 309 cells, 1-200 = file_a and 200-309 = file_b). See Image 1.

Users also have the ability to view the data by importing CSV datasets and digital boundaries into their own database software, or viewing it in Excel and/or other spreadsheet applications. See Image 2 below to see how the file displays in Excel from the CSV datafile, and Image 3 to see how the file displays in MapInfo software.

The 2006 DataPacks do NOT include a Microsoft Excel Viewer software (as was previously included in the 2001 Census Basics product). If clients wish to obtain the data as a formatted 'Community Profile Table' (see Image 4 below for example of the sequential metadata file which mimics the appearance of a formatted 'Community Profile Table'), these can be accessed via the ABS Website by downloading the entire Community Profile for each location free of charge. These are available by selecting an individual area using the location search interface and then downloading each Profile for the chosen area.

Image 1 - CSV Data displayed in 'string' format
The image below is a CSV data file displayed in a 'string' format, that is data separated by commas. The first column is the geographic ID, the remaining column headings from left to right reference each single data item and are labelled sequentially as 'B1', 'B2', 'B3', etc. These match the sequential metadata .xls files (see Image 4 below) that accompany the product and which should be used in conjunction with reading the .CSV file. In this example, B1 in the CSV file = '1' in the sequential file = data item 'Males-Total Persons', and B2 = 2 = 'Females-Total Persons', B3 = 3 = 'Persons-Total Persons' and so on.

Note. The alpha character used in the cell identifier is unique to each individual profile type. Ie, 'B' is used to reference the cell for the 'Basic Community Profile', 'I' will be used for the Indigenous Profile, 'T' will be used for the Time Series Profile and so on.

Image 2 - CSV Data displayed in Excel
The image below is the CSV data file displayed in Excel, where the data separated by commas is converted to displaying data in cells. The first column is the geographic ID, the remaining column headings from left to right reference each single data item and are labelled sequentially as 'B1', 'B2', 'B3', etc. These match the sequential metadata .xls files (see Image 4 below) that accompany the product and which should be used in conjunction with reading the .CSV file. In this example, B1 in the excel file = '1' in the sequential file = data item 'Males-Total Persons', and B2 = 2 = 'Females-Total Persons', B3 = 3 = 'Persons-Total Persons' and so on.

Image 3 - CSV Data displayed in MapInfo
This image displays a CSV data file imported into 'MapInfo' software which contains the file structure associated with the CSV file. The first column relates to the geographic ID, the remaining columns from left to right reference each single data item and are labelled sequentially as 'B1', 'B2', 'B3', etc. These match the sequential metadata .xls files (see Image 4 below) that accompany the product and which should be used in conjunction with reading the .CSV file. In this example, B1 in the excel file = '1' in the sequential file = data item 'Males-Total Persons', and B2 = 2 = 'Females-Total Persons', B3 = 3 = 'Persons-Total Persons' and so on.

Image 4 - sequential metadata file
The sequential metadata file is formatted in the same fashion as a 'Community Profile Table'.
To identify the data label references (column headings) for the csv data when viewed in Excel or MapInfo, the User must open the 'sequential' metadata file and align the column headings with the cell reference number. In this example, 1 = 'Males/Total Persons', 2 = 'Females/Total Persons', 3 = 'Persons/Total Persons'.

4. File format - reading a Digital Boundary Basemap (mid/mif), (ESRI .shp) file

Digital boundary basemaps will be available in the following formats:

MapInfo Interchange format (.Mid/Mif)
EsriShape files (.shp)

Users will be able to view the digital boundary basemaps directly from the CD-ROM (after unzipping), in conjunction with the data and metadata files included on the CD-ROM. The major requirement is that the user can only read these through Geographic Information System (GIS) software products such as 'MapInfo' or 'PC Arcview'. Each area contains a geographic label.

Image 1 - See the following example of a CD digital boundary basemap file for NSW:

Image 2 - See the following example of a CD digital boundary basemap file that has been 'zoomed in' complete with geographic labels for NSW (area selected is Sydney Harbour):

5. Geographic Availability per Release schedule and Community Profile type

The following table indicates which geographic levels are available per Profile and its Release Schedule:

Abbreviations for Geography Table

BCP = Basic Community Profile

IP = Indigenous Profile

PEP = Place of Enumeration Profile

DigB = 2006 Digital Boundaries

TSP= Time Series Profile

XCP = Expanded Community Profile

WPP = Working Population Profile

ERP = Estimated Resident Population

Product: '2006 Census DataPacks'
Geographic Availability - 1st & 2nd Release