EXPLANATORY NOTES
CENSUS DICTIONARY, 2016 (cat. no. 2901.0)
The Census Dictionary provides a ready reference for the 2016 Census of Population and Housing, providing information about the Census, the topics and classifications used, managing Census quality and a Glossary of Terms.
POPULATION COUNT
As place of usual residence is the most common population count used in this publication, their use in tables, graphs and text is not always noted. Where place of enumeration population counts are used, this is noted in footnotes and in the text.
DATA BASED ON THE CENSUS AND DATA BASED ON THE ESTIMATED RESIDENT POPULATION
Data in this article is based on the counts from the Censuses of Population and Housing. Results will differ from analysis based on the Estimated Resident Population (ERP). Estimates of the resident population are based on Census counts by place of usual residence, to which are added the estimated Census net undercount and the number of Australian residents estimated to have been temporarily overseas at the time of the Census. Overseas visitors in Australia are excluded.
SCOPE OF THE CENSUS
Visitors to Australia were included in the Census regardless of how long they have been in the country or how long they plan to stay. However, for people who will be in Australia less than one year, only basic demographic data are available from the Census. Visitors are generally excluded from analysis, but it has been noted if they are included. For more information see the 2016 Census Dictionary.
TIME SERIES COMPARISONS
In a number of articles comparisons have been made between the 2016 Census and earlier Censuses. A number of significant events and changes affecting the Census have occurred that should be considered when making comparisons of Census data over time. These are detailed in Census of Population and Housing: Nature and Content (cat no 2008.0),
In most cases, the classifications used to make comparisons over time are the same in each Census year and the comparisons have been made with a high degree of certainty. In other cases, the classifications and/or processing methods have changed over time and the comparisons are less certain. Comparisons have only been made where the data has been assessed as fit for the purpose for which they are used: in some instances, changes over time have not been discussed because of the degree of uncertainty and change involved.
TOTALS - ROUNDING AND DATA PERTURBATION
Figures have been rounded in most articles. Therefore discrepancies may occur between the sums of the component items and total.
There are small random adjustments made to all cell values to protect the confidentiality of data. These adjustments may cause the sum or rows or columns to differ by small amounts from table totals
TREATMENT OF PARTICULAR DATA ITEMS
To be as consistent as possible with ERP figures and to minimise the effect of variations in the numbers of overseas visitors on time series data, all overseas visitors have been excluded from data used in the report, unless otherwise specified.
In the 2016 Census, there were people who did not state either their birthplace or their parents' birthplace. Therefore their generation cannot be identified from Census data. These people have been excluded prior to the calculation of percentages for generations in Australia. However, people who did not state their birthplace were included in the total population of Australia for the calculation of overseas-born and Australian-born.
Where classifications used included an 'inadequately described' or similar category, data in these categories were generally treated as a standard category unless otherwise stated.
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