PURPOSE
The SOS Structure uses population counts from the latest Census of Population and Housing to class CDs as urban or rural. Unlike the UC/L Structure (Chapter 6), the SOS Structure includes all CDs and therefore, in aggregate, the SOS Structure covers all of Australia (as defined in Chapter 1). For the 2001 edition, three of the five different SOS have been divided into sub categories based on population size.
The SOS Structure is used for the production of standard statistical outputs from Population Censuses such as Selected Social and Housing Characteristics for Urban Centres and Localities (cat. nos 2016.0-.7) and CDATA2001 (cat. Nos 2019.0.30.001-.8.30.001). It is also used to classify data collected from the labour force surveys.
The SOS Structure is maintained as a separate structure in the ASGC because SOS spatial units do not align with spatial units from any of the other structures.
THE STRUCTURE
The SOS Structure is defined only in census years. It contains three hierarchical levels, comprising in ascending order: CDs-SOS-S/Ts. In this structure, CDs aggregate to SOS and SOS aggregate to S/Ts without gaps or overlaps. Consequently, the structure covers all of Australia.
Table
The SOS Structure for the 2001 Census is shown in Chapter 13.
- Section of State Structure: States/Territories, Sections of State
(showing only the top two levels of the hierarchy: S/T-SOS)
Example:
S/T | SOS |  |
1 | | New South Wales |
| 0 | Major Urban |
| 1 | Other Urban |
| 2 | Bounded Locality |
| 3 | Rural Balance |
| 4 | Migratory |
Listings of component CDs of SOS, for census year 2001, are available from the ABS as a Customised Geographic Data Report.
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