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EXPLANATORY NOTES

INTRODUCTION

1 This publication, Census of Population and Housing: Commuting to Work - More Stories from the Census, 2016, adds to the existing suite of Census products created from the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. The data and articles presented in this publication provide insight into commuting patterns and behaviours across Australia.

DISTANCE TO WORK

2 The Distance to Work data, or commuting distance, provides a measurement of the distance travelled between a person's Mesh Block of Place of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work. An assumption in the calculation of this data is that a person has followed the shortest path with no stops when commuting to work. Detailed information on the how commuting distances were calculated can be found on the Understanding the Census and Census Data (cat. no. 2900.0) page.

3 The data is applicable to all persons who stated their labour force status as 'employed'. It excludes persons who were unemployed, not in the labour force or labour force status not stated, as well as overseas visitors and those aged less than 15 years.

Data Cubes

4 The table below provides a summary of all data cubes included in the Downloads tab.

• People who commuted 250 kilometres or more are excluded from the statistics.
• Persons who were coded to Special Purpose Codes are excluded from the statistics. Non-spatial geographies (e.g. Migratory - Offshore - Shipping) are excluded from the data cubes as commuting distances were not calculated for these areas.
• Nil distances have been included in the calculations of average commuting distance, median commuting distance, Interquartile range and standard deviation. Information on nil distances can be found on the Understanding the Census and Census Data (cat. no. 2900.0) page.

• The Mode of Travel to Work (MTW06P, MTW15P) is a variable derived from the Census item Method of Travel to Work (MTWP) which records the method used to travel to work on the day of the Census.
• Place of Work and Method of Travel to Work are collected on the Census form but represent different reference periods. The Place of Work represents the address of the main job held the last week before the day of the Census, while Method of Travel to Work represents how the person travelled to work on the day of the Census. As a result, in some cases a distance between a person's Mesh Block of Place of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work has been reported for Mode of Travel to Work such as ‘Worked at home’ or ‘Did not go to Work’ where the Mesh Block of Place of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work was not the same.
• The distance recorded for persons who were away from their Place of Usual Residence on Census night may not be indicative of their typical journey to work. For example, a fly-in, fly-out worker may have recorded their Place of Usual Residence in Sydney but their main job held the last week before the day of the Census (Place of Work) was in Western Australia. In these cases, a large distance would be recorded. Distances greater than 250 kilometres have been excluded from the statistics presented in the data cubes.
• The data is a measurement between the centre point (or centroid) of the Mesh Block of Place of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work, noting that the location of the centroid in the Mesh Block was weighted based on the location of residential and commercial addresses respectively. A consequence of measuring distance between the weighted centroid of a person's Mesh Block of Place of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work is this method can yield a different commuting distance to that which was taken. This limitation is most visible for short journeys such as walking to work.
• The commuting distance data has been measured using a road network or straight line distance, which may not provide an accurate representation of distance for some modes of travel such as walking or rail.
• Each person’s Mode of Travel to Work is based on their primary response to the Method of Travel to Work question on the Census form. For example, if their Method of Travel to Work was ‘Train, ferry’ the Train category would have been used as the Mode of Travel to Work.
• More information can be found on the Understanding the Census and Census Data (cat. no. 2900.0) page.

• Commuting Distance from Place of Usual Residence
• Commuting Distance to Place of Work
• Journey to Work from Place of Usual Residence
• Journey to Work to Place of Work

• The commuting distance and journey to work interactive maps have used different input datasets and are not directly comparable.
• The commuting distance interactive maps exclude commutes 250 kilometres or more, persons who were not employed and persons who were coded to Special Purpose Codes, nil distances have been included.
• The journey to work interactive maps excludes persons who were not employed, but have included persons with commutes of 250 kilometres or more. Special Purpose Codes have been included in the statistics, but are omitted in the interactive maps as they relate to non-spatial geographies. For example, Map 1 on the Interactive Maps - Journey to work page lists 'No fixed address' as the sixth most common response from the residents of Melbourne.
• The journey to work maps display both lines and a choropleth map (areas are shaded in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable) representing the numbers of people commuting between an origin SA2 and destination SA2. The lines represent the most frequent commutes between SA2s, while the choropleth map provides a more complete picture of the journey to work. A filter of 100 SA2s has been applied to the choropleth map to maximise performance.
• Small random adjustments have been made to all cell values to protect the confidentiality of data. These adjustments may cause the sum of rows or columns to differ by small amounts from the table totals.