WHAT IS SEIFA?
The 2016 Census of Population and Housing provides information on a broad range of social and economic aspects of the Australian population. People using Census data are often interested in an overview or summary measure of Census data, rather than looking at individual items. The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) is one such summary measure.
SEIFA is a suite of four indexes that have been created from social and economic Census information. Each index ranks geographic areas across Australia in terms of their relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. The four indexes each summarise a slightly different aspect of the socio-economic conditions in an area.
The indexes can be used for a number of different purposes, including targeting areas for business and services, strategic planning and social and economic research. For each index, every geographic area in Australia receives a SEIFA score which gives a measure of how relatively advantaged or disadvantaged that area is compared with other areas in Australia.
The four indexes in SEIFA 2016 are:
- Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD)
- Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD)
- Index of Economic Resources (IER)
- Index of Education and Occupation (IEO)
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