Census mesh block counts

Mesh Blocks are the smallest geographical area defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and form the building blocks for the larger regions of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS).  Most Mesh Blocks contain 30 to 60 dwellings. In 2021, there were 368,286 Mesh Blocks covering the whole of Australia without gaps or overlaps.

Mesh Blocks were developed to fulfil the need for accurate small area statistics. They also improve the relationship between small area geography and the social, physical and economic realities of the landscape. They broadly identify land use such as residential, commercial, industrial, parkland etc. For more information, please see Mesh Blocks (ASGS).

The dataset download below contains counts of the total usual resident population and total dwelling count from the 2021 Census for Mesh Blocks.

• Persons Usually Resident: This is the count of people where they usually live, which may or may not be where they were on Census Night. This data is coded from the address supplied to the question "Where does the person usually live?". For more information, see Place of Usual Residence.
• Dwellings: A dwelling is a structure which is intended to have people live in it, and which is habitable on Census Night. All occupied dwellings are counted in the Census. Unoccupied private dwellings are also counted with the exception of those in caravan parks, marinas and manufactured home estates. For more information about dwellings, see Dwelling Type.

Mesh Block boundaries are available to download from digital boundary files (ASGS).