2032.0 - Census of Population and Housing: Australia in Profile -- A Regional Analysis, 1996  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 14/12/1998   
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MEDIA RELEASE

December 14, 1998
Embargoed: 11:30 AM (AEST)
143/1998

Australia in Profile: A regional analysis of Tasmania

A major new social report, Australia in Profile: a Regional Analysis,released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, uses results from the 1996 Census of Population and Housing to describe some of the major differences in the characteristics and well-being of people living in different parts of Australia. The report enables comparisons of regions in Tasmania with regions across other States and Territories.

This report capitalises on the strength of the Census which is to provide detailed information for small geographic areas. The report also compares and contrasts the circumstances of people living in urban and rural areas, and identifies regions with the highest or lowest proportions of people with particular characteristics.

Australia in Profile: a Regional Analysis is divided into two main parts. The first consists of seven chapters discussing topics of social interest and concern in a range of areas including, cultural diversity, living arrangements, and employment and unemployment.

The second part of the report consists of a detailed social indicator table which presents a selection of key indicators for Statistical Local Areas - towns, shires and municipalities - across Tasmania and Australia. At a glance Tasmanian can be compared to other regions in Australia.

One indicator of the general social well-being of a community are socio-economic indexes. The Index of Relative Disadvantage, which combines a number of variables (such as low income, low educational attainment, high unemployment, and persons in relatively unskilled occupations) into a single index number for each geographic area published is included in the Report.

Tasmania, based on this measure, is relatively more disadvantaged than the Australian average and has the highest level of disadvantage of any State, but is less disadvantaged than the Northern Territory. the ACT, New South Wales, Victoria, and Western Australia are less disadvantaged than the national average.

Within Tasmania, the Greater Hobart Statistical Division is the least disadvantaged region with an index score at a level equivalent to the Australian average. Mersey-Lyell and the Southern Statistical Divisions, which had very similar scores, were the most disadvantaged regions in Tasmania.


Other findings in the report about Tasmanian municipalities are:

  • In Glamorgan/Spring Bay, 16% of the population was aged 65 years or more, compared to 11% in neighbouring Southern Midlands, and 13% in Tasmania as a whole.
  • King Island, at 70%, had the highest level of labour force participation and Break O'Day, at 48%, the lowest.
  • West Tamar, Sorell and Kingborough all had over 80% of their households in owner-occupied dwellings.
  • Hobart, Kingborough, West Tamar and Clarence were ranked among the most advantaged in Tasmania, while the most disadvantaged regions included Brighton, Break O'Day, George Town, Tasman and Central Highlands.
  • Seventeen per cent of people in the Flinders Municipality were of Indigenous origin, compared to 3% of Tasmania as a whole.

Australia in Profile: a Regional Analysis (cat. no. 2032.0) is available from ABS bookshops. Other Media Releases which look Nationally and at individual States and Territories are also available from this site.