Distance to Work
This variable presents the distance between a person's Place of Usual Residence (PURP) and Place of Work (POWP). It is applicable to all persons aged 15 years and over who stated their labour force status as 'employed'. The calculation of these new data items used existing Census data. This provided a way to increase the value of Census data without asking additional questions on the Census form.
How this variable is created
Distance to Work (ranges) (DTWP)
Distance to Work (DTWP) is a measurement of the distance travelled between a person's Mesh Block of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work. The data item was created using a combination of existing statistical and geospatial data to make new calculations. An assumption in the calculation of this data is that a person has followed the shortest path with no stops when commuting to work.
The data was calculated using the shortest path of a road network, or where this was not possible a straight line distance, between a person's Mesh Block of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work. As a straight line distance is likely to under represent the true distance of a commuting route, a correction factor was incorporated by multiplying the straight line distance by 1.3. This value was selected based on ABS analysis on the difference between road network and straight line distance, and the value also aligned closely with similar studies (Broscoe, Henry & Zdeb 2012; Goncalves & Neves 2014; Newell 1980). The source of road network data was Navteq July 2016, produced by HERE Technology.
The data should be considered an estimate as it was a measurement between the centre point (or centroid) of the Mesh Block 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. Mesh Blocks are the smallest geographical area defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and form the building blocks for the larger regions within the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS).
Distance to work data has been presented in a hierarchical classification with four levels of distance ranges. Please see the Appendix for details on the classification of these ranges.
For persons who lived and worked in the same Mesh Block and their Mode of Travel to Work was not recorded as 'Worked from home', 'Did not go to work' or 'Mode not stated', a small distance has been calculated where the centre points for Mesh Block of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work were weighted to different locations.
The nil category includes:
- Persons who stated they 'Worked from home', 'Did not go to work' or 'Mode not stated' and their Mesh Block of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work were the same
- Persons with the same Mesh Block of Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work where the centre points were not weighted to different locations
The Not Applicable (@) category includes:
- Persons who were unemployed, not in the labour force, or whose labour force status was not stated
- Persons under 15 years of age
- Overseas visitors
- Persons who were coded to Special Purpose Codes
Imputation Flag (IFDTWP)
The Imputation Flag for Distance to Work (IFDTWP) variable indicates that a person's distance to work was calculated using a straight line or road network distance. The straight line distance was only used where there was a break in the underlying road network data, for example, a person travelled between an island and the Australian mainland. Overall, 95.3% of people's commuting distances were calculated using a road network, 0.2% were calculated with a straight line distance, while 4.5% could not be calculated (see Not Applicable categories). This is applicable to all persons aged 15 years and over who stated
their labour force status as 'employed'.
IFDTWP variable categories are shown below:
1 Distance to Work calculated with a straight line distance
2 Distance to Work calculated with a road network distance
@ Not applicable
The Not Applicable (@) category includes:
- Persons who were unemployed, not in the labour force, or whose labour force status was not stated
- Persons under 15 years of age
- Overseas visitors
- Persons who were coded to Special Purpose Codes
Mode of Travel to Work (MTW06P, MTW15P)
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. The Mode of Travel to Work classification has been sourced from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (
BITRE), and is applicable to all persons aged 15 years or over who state their labour force
status as 'employed'.
Mode of Travel to Work has been presented in a hierarchical classification of two levels: a general level
, with 6 modes of transport (MTW06P) and detailed, with 15 modes of transport (MTW15P). The classes within these classifications are shown below:
Mode of travel used for commuting to work
|
Mode of Travel to Work Codes (MTW15P) | Mode of Travel to Work Description
(MTW15P) | Mode of Travel to Work Codes
(MTW06P) | Mode of Travel to Work Description
(MTW06P) |
|
01 | Train | 1 | Public Transport |
02 | Bus | 1 | Public Transport |
03 | Ferry | 1 | Public Transport |
04 | Tram | 1 | Public Transport |
05 | Taxi | 1 | Public Transport |
06 | Car, as driver | 2 | Vehicle |
07 | Car, as passenger | 2 | Vehicle |
08 | Truck | 2 | Vehicle |
09 | Motorbike/scooter | 2 | Vehicle |
10 | Bicycle | 3 | Active Transport |
11 | Other Mode | 3 | Other Mode |
12 | Walked only | 4 | Active Transport |
13 | Worked at home | 5 | Worked at home or Did not go to work |
14 | Did not go to work | 5 | Worked at home or Did not go to work |
15 | Mode not stated | 6 | Mode not stated |
|
| | | |
Variable history
Distance to Work (DTWP)
, Imputation Flag for Distance to Work (IFDTWR) and Mode of Travel to Work (MTW06P, MTW15P) are new variables for 2016.
Non-response rate
Distance to work does not have a non-response rate as it is a derived value for applicable persons. Non-response rate only applies to data items that directly reflect responses to individual Census form questions.
For more information, refer to
Census of Population and Housing: Understanding Census and Census Data, Australia 2016 (cat. no. 2900.0).
Data usage notes
The distance to work data is available within TableBuilder Basic & Pro and is provided as a hierarchical classification (see Appendix) of four levels of distance ranges, at increasing detail.
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 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 Usual Residence and Mesh Block of Place of Work was not the same.
The distance recorded for persons who were away from their 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 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. |
Further information
List of References
Boscoe, FP, Henry, KA & Zdeb, MS 2012 , A Nationwide Comparison of Driving Distance Versus Straight-Line Distance to Hospitals, The Professional Geographer,vol 64, no 2 10.1080/00330124.2011.583586.
Gonçalves, D & Neves, S 2014 , Analysis of the Difference between the Euclidean Distance and the Actual Road Distance in Brazil, Transportation Research Procedia 3, pp 876-885.
Newell, G 1980, Traffic Flow on Transportation Networks, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Appendix
Distance to Work (DTWP) Ranges
| 1 | Nil distance
| | |
| | 10 | Nil distance
| | |
| | | 100 | Nil distance
| | |
| | | | 1000 | Nil distance
| |
| 2 | Over 0 to less than 2.5
| | |
| | 20 | Over 0 to less than 1
| | |
| | | 200 | Over 0 to less than 0.5
| |
| | | | 2000 | Over 0 to less than 0.5 |
| | | 201 | 0.5 to less than 1
| | |
| | | | 2010 | 0.5 to less than 1 | |
| | 21 | 1 to less than 2.5
| | |
| | | 210 | 1 to less than 2.5
| | |
| | | | 2100 | 1 to less than 1.5 | |
| | | | 2101 | 1.5 to less than 2 | |
| | | | 2102 | 2 to less than 2.5
| |
| 3 | 2.5 to less than 10 | | |
| | 30 | 2.5 to less than 5 | | |
| | | 300 | 2.5 to less than 5 | | |
| | | | 3000 | 2.5 to less than 3 | |
| | | | 3001 | 3 to less than 4 | |
| | | | 3002 | 4 to less than 5 | |
| | 31 | 5 to less than 10 | | |
| | | 310 | 5 to less than 10 | | |
| | | | 3100 | 5 to less than 6 | |
| | | | 3101 | 6 to less than 7 | |
| | | | 3102 | 7 to less than 8 | |
| | | | 3103 | 8 to less than 9 | |
| | | | 3104 | 9 to less than 10
| |
| 4 | 10 to less than 30 | | |
| | 40 | 10 to less than 20 | | |
| | | 400 | 10 to less than 15 | | |
| | | | 4000 | 10 to less than 11 | |
| | | | 4001 | 11 to less than 12 | |
| | | | 4002 | 12 to less than 13 | |
| | | | 4003 | 13 to less than 14 | |
| | | | 4004 | 14 to less than 15 | |
| | | 401 | 15 to less than 20 | | |
| | | | 4010 | 15 to less than 16 | |
| | | | 4011 | 16 to less than 17 | |
| | | | 4012 | 17 to less than 18 | |
| | | | 4013 | 18 to less than 19 | |
| | | | 4014 | 19 to less than 20 | |
| | 41 | 20 to less than 30 | | |
| | | 410 | 20 to less than 25 | | |
| | | | 4100 | 20 to less than 21 | |
| | | | 4101 | 21 to less than 22 | |
| | | | 4102 | 22 to less than 23 | |
| | | | 4103 | 23 to less than 24 | |
| | | | 4104 | 24 to less than 25 | |
| | | 411 | 25 to less than 30 | | |
| | | | 4110 | 25 to less than 26 | |
| | | | 4111 | 26 to less than 27 | |
| | | | 4112 | 27 to less than 28 | |
| | | | 4113 | 28 to less than 29 | |
| | | | 4114 | 29 to less than 30
| |
| 5 | 30 to less than 50 | | |
| | 50 | 30 to less than 50 | | |
| | | 500 | 30 to less than 40 | | |
| | | | 5000 | 30 to less than 32 | |
| | | | 5001 | 32 to less than 34 | |
| | | | 5002 | 34 to less than 36 | |
| | | | 5003 | 36 to less than 38 | |
| | | | 5004 | 38 to less than 40 | |
| | | 501 | 40 to less than 50 | | |
| | | | 5010 | 40 to less than 42 | |
| | | | 5011 | 42 to less than 44 | |
| | | | 5012 | 44 to less than 46 | |
| | | | 5013 | 46 to less than 48 | |
| | | | 5014 | 48 to less than 50
| |
| 6 | 50 to less than 250 | | |
| | 60 | 50 to less than 100 | | |
| | | 600 | 50 to less than 60 | | |
| | | | 6000 | 50 to less than 52 | |
| | | | 6001 | 52 to less than 54 | |
| | | | 6002 | 54 to less than 56 | |
| | | | 6003 | 56 to less than 58 | |
| | | | 6004 | 58 to less than 60 | |
| | | 601 | 60 to less than 80 | | |
| | | | 6010 | 60 to less than 62 | |
| | | | 6011 | 62 to less than 64 | |
| | | | 6012 | 64 to less than 66 | |
| | | | 6013 | 66 to less than 68 | |
| | | | 6014 | 68 to less than 70 | |
| | | | 6015 | 70 to less than 72 | |
| | | | 6016 | 72 to less than 74 | |
| | | | 6017 | 74 to less than 76 | |
| | | | 6018 | 76 to less than 78 | |
| | | | 6019 | 78 to less than 80 | |
| | | 602 | 80 to less than 100 | | |
| | | | 6020 | 80 to less than 85 | |
| | | | 6021 | 85 to less than 90 | |
| | | | 6022 | 90 to less than 95 | |
| | | | 6023 | 95 to less than 100 | |
| | 61 | 100 to less than 250 | | |
| | | 610 | 100 to less than 250 | | |
| | | | 6100 | 100 to less than 110 | |
| | | | 6101 | 110 to less than 120 | |
| | | | 6102 | 120 to less than 130 | |
| | | | 6103 | 130 to less than 140 | |
| | | | 6104 | 140 to less than 150 | |
| | | | 6105 | 150 to less than 200 | |
| | | | 6106 | 200 to less than 250r
| |
| 7 | 250 and over | | |
| | 70 | 250 and over | | |
| | | 700 | 250 and over | | |
| | | | 7000 | 250 to less than 300 | |
| | | | 7001 | 300 to less than 350 | |
| | | | 7002 | 350 to less than 400 | |
| | | | 7003 | 400 to less than 600 | |
| | | | 7004 | 600 to less than 800 | |
| | | | 7005 | 800 to less than 1000 | |
| | | | 7006 | 1000 to less than 3000 |
| | | | 7007 | 3000 and over
| |
| @ | Not applicable | | |
| | @@ | Not applicable | | |
| | | @@@ Not applicable | | |
| | | | @@@@Not applicable | |