M1 | 'M1' is currency plus bank current deposits of the private non-bank sector;
Reference: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
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M3 | 'M3' is M1 plus all other bank deposits of the private non-bank sector;
Reference: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
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Machinery and equipment | Consists of transport equipment, computing equipment and other machinery and equipment other than that acquired by households for final consumption.
Reference: Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. cat. no. 5206.0.
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Main destination | Australian residents travelling overseas are asked on departure for the name of the country in which they intend to spend most time.
Reference: Overseas Arrivals and Departures. cat. no. 3401.0.
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Manifest | A document issued by a shipper, covering all cargo stated to be in a ship or aircraft for delivery at a particular seaport or airport.
Reference: International Merchandise Trade, Australia, Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 5489.0.
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Manufacturing | Quarterly constant price estimates of gross output for each manufacturing industry subdivision (excluding petroleum refining) are derived by summing constant price estimates of manufacturers’ sales of manufactured goods, other operating revenue (where significant) and changes in the level of stocks of finished goods and work-in-progress. Constant price estimates of all components of manufacturing output except petroleum refining are derived by price deflation, i.e. current price components (obtained from the quarterly Survey of Stocks and Manufacturers’ Sales) are deflated by fixed weighted producer price indexes (published in Producer Price Indexes, Australia (cat. no. 6427.0)). Quarterly petroleum refining estimates are based on quarterly quantity data published in Australian Petroleum Statistics (released by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources). Quarterly constant price estimates of output are used to derive constant price estimates of gross product at factor cost by the gross output method. The latter estimates are then benchmarked to corresponding annual estimates of gross product at market prices (based on annual Manufacturing Survey data).
Quarterly business indicators data provides the main indicator series for the manufacturing indexes. As a result, these indexes have three important limitations as measures of manufacturing production:
- changes in quarterly production by manufacturing establishments of non-manufacturing businesses are not reflected in the indexes;
- changes in a part of the quarterly production of non-manufacturing establishments of manufacturing businesses are reflected in the indexes; and
- changes in quarterly production by government bodies such as shipyards are not reflected in the indexes.
The scope of the data used in the manufacturing indicator series also differs slightly from the general definition of manufacturing gross product. The stocks estimates used include finished goods bought in, but not manufactured, by a business. As far as can be assessed this has not had a significant influence on the estimates. This series feeds into the Indexes of Industrial Production.
Reference: Australian Economic Indicators. cat. no. 1350.0.
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Marginal attachment to the labour force | Persons who were not in the labour force in the reference week, wanted to work, and:
- were actively looking for work but did not meet the availability criteria to be classified as unemployed or
- were not actively looking for work but were available to start work within four weeks or could start work within four weeks if child care was available.
The criteria for determining those in the labour force are based on activity (i.e. working or looking for work) and availability to start work during the reference week. The criteria associated with marginal attachment to the labour force, in particular the concepts of wanting to work and reasons for not actively looking for work, are more subjective. Hence, the measurement against these criteria is affected by the respondent's own interpretation of the concepts used. An individual respondent's interpretation may be affected by their work aspirations, as well as family, economic and other commitments.
Reference: Australian Labour Market Statistics. cat. no. 6105.0.
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Marital status | Two separate concepts of marital status are measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. These are registered marital status and social marital status.
Registered marital status refers to formally registered marriages and divorces. Registered marital status is a person's relationship status in terms of whether he or she has, or has had, a registered marriage with another person. Accordingly, people are classified as either 'never married', 'married', 'widowed' or 'divorced'.
Social marital status is the relationship status of an individual with reference to another person who is usually resident in the household. A marriage exists when two people live together as husband and wife, or partners, regardless of whether the marriage is formalised through registration. Individuals are, therefore, regarded as married if they are in a de facto marriage, or if they are living with the person to whom they are registered as married. Under social marital status, a person is classified as either 'married' or 'not married' with further disaggregation of 'married' to distinguish 'registered married' persons from 'de facto married' persons.
Reference: Marriages, Australia. cat. no. 3306.0.55.001.
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Market output | Output that is sold at prices that are economically significant or otherwise disposed of on the market, or intended for sale or disposal on the market.
Reference: Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. cat. no. 5206.0.
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Market sector | Five industries are excluded from the market sector: Property and business services; Government administration and defence; Education; Health and community services; and Personal and other services. These are excluded because their outputs are not marketed and/or because their outputs are derived either wholly or primarily by using either deflated input cost data or hours worked as indicators of output. The chain volume measure of the production of a group of industries referred to as the market sector is defined to be the chain volume estimate of industry gross value added of all industries less the above five industries, less Ownership of dwellings (for which an index of capital services is used as the indicator of output), plus taxes less subsidies on products attributable to the market sector industries.
Reference: Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. cat. no. 5206.0.
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Marriage | Refers to registered marriage only. Under the Australian Marriage Act 1961 (Commonwealth), a marriage may be celebrated by a minister of religion registered as an authorised celebrant, by a district registrar or by other persons authorised by the Attorney-General. Notice of the intended marriage must be given to the celebrant at least one calendar month but within six calendar months before the marriage. A celebrant must transmit an official certificate of the marriage for registration in the State or Territory in which the marriage took place.
Reference: Demographic Estimates and Projections: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 3228.0.
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Matched sample | In a matched sample, items that are priced from period to period are identical in all respects.
Reference: Australian Consumer Price Index: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 6461.0.
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Mean age (Labour Force Survey and other household surveys) | The sum of the ages of all the persons in a group, divided by the total number of persons in that group.
Reference: Australian Labour Market Statistics. cat. no. 6105.0. |
Mean duration of unemployment | The sum of the duration of unemployment of all the unemployed persons in a group, divided by the total number of unemployed persons in that group.
Reference: Australian Labour Market Statistics. cat. no. 6105.0.
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Mean populations | Mean populations are calculated using the formula:
![Equation: This equation shows how the mean population series is calculated](/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/80ee1929d44b0696ca25731c007ee02b/Body/0.5BFA!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif)
where a is the population at the end of the quarter immediately preceding the 12-month period, and b, c, d and e are the populations at the end of each of the four succeeding quarters. The weights used in the formulation of the mean annual populations have been derived using a mathematical technique which involves the fitting of two quadratic polynomial functions to a series of points.
Reference: Demographic Estimates and Projections: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 3228.0.
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Median age | For any distribution the median age is that age which divides the relevant population into two equal parts, half falling below the value, and half exceeding it. Where the age for a particular record has not been stated, that record is excluded from the calculation.
Reference: Australian Labour Market Statistics. cat. no. 6105.0.
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Median age at child-bearing | The term refers to the age when approximately one-half of the females in a population have their children, either for a birth of particular birth order or for all births. It measures the age at child-bearing within the female population, as distinct from the median age of mother at confinement which measures the median age of the females who gave birth in a particular year.
Reference: Demographic Estimates and Projections: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 3228.0.
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Median duration of unemployment | The duration which divides unemployed persons into two equal groups: one comprising persons whose duration of unemployment is above the median; and the other, persons whose duration is below it.
Reference: Australian Labour Market Statistics. cat. no. 6105.0.
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Median value | For any distribution the median value (age, duration, interval) is that value which divides the relevant population into two equal parts, half falling below the value, and half exceeding it. Where the value for a particular record has not been stated, that record is excluded from the calculation.
Reference: Demographic Estimates and Projections: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 3228.0.
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Metropolitan | For purposes of the CPI, ‘metropolitan’ refers to the six State capital cities, Darwin and Canberra.
Reference: Australian Consumer Price Index: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 6461.0.
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Migration adjustment | The ABS applies a number of adjustments t overseas arrivals and departures data in order to produce estimates of net overseas migration (NOM). These mainly comprise adjustments designed to reflect differences between stated travel intentions and actual travel behaviour, but (in the case of revised NOM estimates) also include adjustments to transform numbers of overseas movements into numbers of travellers. These adjustments are collectively referred to as 'migration adjustments', although they have been referred to in the past as 'category jumping' adjustments.
Reference: Australian Demographic Statistics. cat. no. 3101.0.
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Minerals | Minerals are a naturally occurring inorganic element or compound having an orderly internal structure and characteristic chemical composition, crystal form, and physical properties. These, for example, comprise of metallic minerals, such as copper, silver, lead-zinc, nickel, cobalt, gold, iron ore, mineral sands, uranium and non-metallic minerals such as coal, diamonds and other precious and semi-precious stones and construction materials (e.g. gravel and sand).
Reference: Mineral and Petroleum Exploration, Australia. cat. no. 8412.0.
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Mineral exploration | Mineral exploration is the value of expenditures on exploration for petroleum and natural gas and for non-petroleum mineral deposits. These expenditures include pre-licence costs, licence and acquisition costs, appraisal costs and the costs of actual test drilling and boring, as well as the costs of aerial and other surveys, transportation costs etc., incurred to make it possible to carry out the tests. See also Intangible fixed assets.
Reference: Australian National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 5216.0.
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Mining | Mining (excluding services to mining) Quarterly constant price output estimates are derived for major ANZSIC classes by quantity revaluation (i.e. quantities produced each quarter multiplied by associated base year (chain volume) average prices). Estimates of quantities produced are obtained from data contained in Quarterly Mineral Statistics (Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics) and Mining Operations, Australia (cat. no. 8415.0). Constant price estimates of value added are derived by the gross output method for each ANZSIC class. Total quarterly estimates of value added are then benchmarked to annual gross product estimates obtained from the mining census. This series feeds into the Indexes of Industrial Production.
Reference: Australian Economic Indicators. cat. no. 1350.0.
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Mode of transport | The mode of transport by which the goods were imported to, or exported from, Australia. Identified by one of three codes:
S - Sea
A - Air
P - Parcel post
Reference: International Merchandise Trade, Australia, Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 5489.0.
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Monetary aggregates | A series of measures of the values of currency on issue, current deposits with banks, other deposits with banks, plus borrowings from the private sector by non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) less currency and bank deposits by NBFIs. Components consist of: 'M1' defined as currency plus bank current deposits of the private non-bank sector; 'M3' defined as M1 plus all other bank deposits of the private non-bank sector; 'Broad money' defined as M3 plus borrowings from the private sector by NBFIs, less the latter's holdings of currency and bank deposits; 'Money base' defined as holdings of notes and coins by the private sector plus deposits of banks with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and other RBA liabilities to the private non-bank sector.
Reference: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
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Monetary gold | Monetary gold constitutes gold owned by the Reserve Bank and other institutions subject to the Reserve Bank’s effective control and held as a financial asset and as a component of foreign reserves.
Reference: Australian National Accounts: Financial Accounts. cat. no. 5232.0, International Merchandise Trade, Australia, Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 5489.0.
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Money base | Money base is the holdings of notes and coins by the private sector plus deposits of banks with the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and other RBA liabilities to the private non-bank sector.
Reference: Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
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Motels, private hotels and guest houses with facilities | Establishments with five or more rooms which are not licensed to operate a public bar, and which provide accommodation on a room/suite basis, with a bath/shower and toilet in most guest rooms, but which do not have full cooking facilities (i.e. hot plates and oven/microwave) in most guest rooms.
Reference: Tourist Accommodation, Australia. cat. no. 8635.0.
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Multi-jurisdictional unit | A unit for which jurisdiction is shared between two or more governments, or its classification to jurisdiction is otherwise unclear. The main type of units currently falling in this sector are public universities.
Reference: Australian System of Government Finance Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 5514.0.55.001.
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Multifactor productivity | Multifactor productivity estimates are indexes of real GDP per combined unit of labour and capital. For a short description of how these estimates are derived, along with a similar description of the closely related capital stock estimates, the reader should consult the feature article: Upgrade of Capital Stock and Multifactor Productivity Estimates on page 8 of the 1997-98 issue of Australian System of National Accounts. cat. no. 5204.0. For a more comprehensive description the reader should refer to Chapter 27 of Australian National Accounts: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 5216.0.
Reference: Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product. cat. no. 5206.0.
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Multiple birth | A multiple birth is a confinement which results in two or more issue, at least one of which is live-born.
Reference: Demographic Estimates and Projections: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 3228.0.
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Multistage area sample | Multistage area sample refers to the successive stages adopted for selecting a sample.
In the Labour Force Survey, each State or Territory is divided into areas or strata of different types, such as metropolitan, urban, rural or sparsely settled. Each stratum is then divided into Local Government Areas (LGAs). LGAs are selected from each stratum to represent the stratum. Each LGA is also, in turn, divided into Census Collectors Districts (CDs) of around 250 dwellings each. CDs are then chosen to represent an LGA. Each CD is also divided into blocks of about 30 dwellings each. Blocks are selected from each CD to represent the CD. Once a block is selected, all dwellings in the block are listed, but only a few are selected for inclusion in any one survey.
Reference: Demographic Estimates and Projections: Concepts, Sources and Methods. cat. no. 3228.0. |