2902.0 - Census Update (Newsletter), Nov 2003  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/11/2003   
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SEIFA 2001 – a comprehensive profile of the Australian people

Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) 2001 has now been released. This powerful analytical tool is available as a stand-alone software package, an Add-On Datapack for CDATA 2001, or as a consultancy service.

SEIFA 2001 enables you to investigate the socio-economic wellbeing of particular areas and identify areas of advantage and disadvantage. SEIFA 2001
is available for Australian Standard Geographic Classification (ASGC) areas as well as the Census geographic areas of Suburbs, Postal Areas and Commonwealth and State Electoral Divisions. You can also create your own custom areas to meet your specifications.

Based on data from the 2001 Census, SEIFA 2001 takes information on issues such as income, education and occupation and summarises them into a series of indexes.

SEIFA 2001 consists of four indexes that each concentrate on a different aspect of the socio-economic conditions in an area. High values indicate areas
of advantage, and low values correspond to areas of disadvantage.

  • Index of Advantage/Disadvantage – A new index for SEIFA 2001, this index is a continuum of advantage to disadvantage. It takes into account variables such as the proportion of families with high incomes, people with a tertiary education, and people employed in a skilled occupation.
  • Index of Disadvantage – Focuses on attributes such as low income, low educational attainment and high unemployment. This index is constructed using the same methodology as was used for the Index of Disadvantage in SEIFA 96.
  • Index of Economic Resources – This index is derived from variables relating to the income, expenditure and assets of families, such as family income, rent paid, mortgage repayments, and dwelling size.
  • Index of Education and Occupation – This index takes into account variables like the proportion of people with a higher qualification or employed in a skilled occupation.

The four indexes in SEIFA 2001 have a number of applications for Government, business and research use, including:
  • assisting with funding allocation decisions
  • market segmentation
  • identifying a new business location
  • constructing research models

For more information contact an ABS consultant on 1300 135 070 or view the information in SEIFA.