EXPLORE YOUR REGION WITH THE NATIONAL REGIONAL PROFILE
Using the NRP
Explore your region's economy
Explore your region's population/people
Explore your region's industry
Further information about the NRP
Using the NRP
This article uses examples to illustrate how data from the National Regional Profile (NRP) can be used to show changes over time in your region or show how your region compares to other regions. We have used the Local Government Areas of Greater Bendigo in Victoria and Mackay in Queensland in the examples.
To learn more about what data is in the NRP, and how to find and navigate around the profiles of the regions you are interested in, go to the NRP Welcome Page and look for the Help on the left menu bar.
All of the following examples use data viewed on the NRP web pages, or downloaded from Excel spreadsheets or SuperTABLE datacubes. Once data for your region(s) of interest is downloaded to your computer, you can create your own tables, or use the graph package in your spreadsheet program to create different styles of graphs.
Explore your region's economy
The NRP contains a number of series related to the economy of regions, including estimates of the unemployment rate, a range of taxation data, and counts of businesses.
Say you want to look at the taxable income data for Mackay. After selecting the region of Mackay, go to the Economy page in the profile and view the data:
TAXATION STATISTICS - year ended 30 June | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
| ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Non-taxable individuals (no.) | 8 236 | 8 538 | 9 181 | 8 828 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Taxable individuals (no.) | 33 219 | 34 999 | 36 721 | 39 740 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Taxable income ($m) | 1 237 | 1 375 | 1 544 | 1 830 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Average taxable income ($) | 37 231 | 39 278 | 42 044 | 46 051 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Net tax ($m) | 287 | 329 | 375 | 457 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Average net tax ($) | 8 629 | 9 394 | 10 206 | 11 489 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Average net tax ratio (%) | 23 | 24 | 24 | 25 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
| ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Source: ABS National Regional Profile |
If you now want to compare the average taxable income in Mackay with the averages for Queensland and Australia, you could download the data (from the Excel spreadsheets for each region or from one of the SuperTABLE data cubes) and create a graph, for example:
Average Taxable income: Mackay, Queensland & Australia
![Graph: Average Taxable income: Mackay, Queensland & Australia](/ausstats/abs@.nsf/91f72cb52e908514ca25709f0000a6a8/80dca6c78b2add37ca2575de0019c4fb/Body/0.2EA2!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif)
For further information about using the Excel spreadsheets and SuperTABLE data cubes in the NRP, see the
NRP Video Demonstration (Video Segments 2 and 3) available from the Help section on the NRP
Welcome Page.
Explore your region's population/people
The NRP contains a number of series related to the population/people of regions, including estimated resident population, occupation of employed persons, internet access, and births and deaths.
Say you want to compare the percentage of employed persons who are managers and professionals in Mackay in 2006, with the percentages for Queensland and Australia. The data for Mackay, for example, can be viewed in the
Population/People page.
You could download the data (from the Excel spreadsheets or one of the SuperTABLE data cubes) and create a table, or create a graph like the following example:
Managers & Professionals as a Percentage of Total Employed Persons
![Graph: Managers & Professionals as a Percentage of Total Employed Persons](/ausstats/abs@.nsf/91f72cb52e908514ca25709f0000a6a8/80dca6c78b2add37ca2575de0019c4fb/Body/0.42B4!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif)
Another way of comparing regions using graphs is shown in the example below, where we have compared the data on household access to the internet in 2006 for Greater Bendigo, with Victoria and Australia.
Broadband, Dial-up & Total Internet Connections
![Graph: Broadband, Dial-up & Total Internet Connections](/ausstats/abs@.nsf/91f72cb52e908514ca25709f0000a6a8/80dca6c78b2add37ca2575de0019c4fb/Body/0.4ED4!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif)
Explore your region's industry
The NRP contains a number of series related to the Industry of regions, including building approvals, registered motor vehicles, and agriculture data.
Say you want to look at the number of building approvals in Mackay over time.
To find Building Approvals information for Mackay, go to the
Industry page to view the data:
BUILDING APPROVALS - year ended 30 June | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
| ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Private sector houses (no.) | 541 | 529 | 804 | 745 | 707 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Total dwelling units (no.) | 621 | 585 | 931 | 913 | 786 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Value of total residential building ($m) | 91 | 103 | 168 | 181 | 193 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Value of total non-residential building ($m) | 66 | 42 | 58 | 110 | 72 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Value of total building ($m) | 157 | 144 | 226 | 291 | 265 | ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
| ![](/icons/ecblank.gif) |
Source: ABS National Regional Profile |
Say you now want to look at only the number of private sector houses and total dwelling units in a graph. Once we have downloaded the Excel spreadsheet for Mackay, we can create a graph, like the following example:
Building Approvals for Mackay: Private sector houses and total dwelling units
![Graph: Building Approvals for Mackay: Private sector houses and total dwelling units](/ausstats/abs@.nsf/91f72cb52e908514ca25709f0000a6a8/80dca6c78b2add37ca2575de0019c4fb/Body/0.6F9C!OpenElement&FieldElemFormat=gif)
Further information about the NRP
For further information about what data is in the National Regional Profile, how to find your region of interest, and using the National Regional Profile, go to the National Regional Profile
Welcome Page and look for the Help information on the left menu bar.