Gender Indicators, Australia methodology

People who identified themselves, or were identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait Islander origin, or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin.

Employees who are 21 years of age or over, and employees under 21 years old who are paid at the full adult rate for their occupation.

The earnings amount obtained by dividing the total earnings of a group (e.g. full-time employees) by the number of employees in that group.

Average hours worked per week are based on the average of actual hours worked across the financial year (e.g. 2014–15), collected in the reference week each month over 12 months of the Labour Force Survey. The time includes all paid and unpaid overtime but excludes hours paid for but not worked during the reference period due to leave (e.g. annual, sick or maternity leave) or for any other reason (e.g. public holidays, meal breaks, time spent on travel to and from work). For more information the concepts and definitions used in ABS labour statistics refer to Labour Force Survey Standard Products and Data Item Guide, Jun 2016 and Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods, Feb 2018 (cat no. 6102.0.55.001).

When care is provided by any person aged 15 years or over to:

• his/ her own child(ren) aged under 15 years living with them
• his/ her own child(ren) aged under 15 years who do not usually live with them
• a child other than his/ her own child aged under 15 years of age.

Remuneration paid to employees on a regular and frequent basis (quarterly or more frequently) for time worked or work done and for time not worked, such as recreation and other types of leave. Cash earnings (inclusive of amounts salary sacrificed) are gross amounts, that is, before tax and other items (e.g. superannuation) are deducted.

Instances of constraints of household financial activity by shortage of money. The financial activities include:

• assistance sought from welfare/community organisations due to shortage of money
• pawned or sold something due to shortage of money
• sought financial help from friends/family due to shortage of money
• unable to heat home due to shortage of money
• went without meals due to shortage of money
• could not pay gas/electricity/telephone bill on time due to shortage of money
• could not pay registration/insurance on time due to shortage of money.  

There is no single definitive measure to determine the number of people in casual employment at any one time; however, the ABS most regularly uses information on paid leave entitlements as a proxy for measuring casual employment in the Australian labour force. The ABS has three data items related to casual employment:

• employees without paid leave entitlements
• employees who receive a casual loading
• employees who consider their job to be casual (self-perception).

For more information on these definitions and concepts see Employees without paid leave entitlements and Labour Statistics: Concepts, Sources and Methods, Feb 2018 (cat no. 6102.0.55.001).

A person of any age who is a natural, adopted, step, or foster son or daughter of a couple or lone parent, usually resident in the same household. A child is also any individual under 15 years of age, usually resident in the household, who forms a parent-child relationship with another member in the household. This includes otherwise related children and unrelated children under 15 years of age. In these cases, in order to be classified as a child, the person can have no child or partner of their own usually resident in the household.

All persons aged under 15 years old; and people aged 15–24 years old who are full-time students, have a parent in the household and do not have a partner or child of their own in the household.

Gross income less income tax, the Medicare levy and the Medicare levy surcharge i.e. remaining income after taxes are deducted, which is available to support consumption and/or saving. Income tax, Medicare levy and the Medicare levy surcharge are imputed based on each person's income and other characteristics as reported in the survey. Disposable income is sometimes referred to as net income.

A suite of rooms within a building that is self-contained and intended for long-term residential use. To be self-contained the suite of rooms must possess cooking and bathing facilities as building fixtures. For examples of private dwellings see Dwelling structure below.

Employed persons include all persons aged 15 years and over who, during the reference week:

• worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind in a job or business, or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers)
• worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers)
• were employees who had a job but were not at work and were:
  • away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week
  • away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week
  • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement
  • on strike or locked out
  • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job
  • were employers or own account workers, who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

Persons employed full-time are those employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.

Persons employed part-time are those employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week (in all jobs) and either did so during the reference week, or were not at work in the reference week.

As of August 2014, the Characteristics of Employment (CoE) Survey defines employees as persons who:

• worked for a public or private employer
• received remuneration in wages or salary; or are paid a retainer fee by their employer and worked on a commission basis, for tips, piece-rates or payment in kind.

Prior to August 2014, the Forms of Employment (FoE) Survey defined employees as people who work for a public or private employer and receive remuneration in wages or salary. Employees are engaged under a contract of service (an employment contract) and take directions from their employer/supervisor/manager/foreman on how the work is performed.

In the Labour Force Survey and other household surveys (including FOES prior to 2008), employees are defined as persons who:

• worked for a public or private employer
• received remuneration in wages or salary; or are paid a retainer fee by their employer and worked on a commission basis, for tips, piece-rates or payment in kind
• operated their own incorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees.

The Employee Earnings and Hours survey (EEH) defines employees as persons who worked for a private or public employer and received pay for the reference period in the form of wages or salaries, a commission while also receiving a retainer, tips, piece-rates or payment in kind. Persons who operated their own incorporated business with or without hiring employees are also included as employees.

Employees who are entitled to either paid sick leave or paid holiday leave (or both). See Employees.

Employees who are not entitled to either paid sick leave or paid holiday leave, or did not know whether they were entitled to paid sick leave or paid holiday leave. See Employees and Casual employment.

For any group, the number of employed persons expressed as a percentage of the civilian population in the same group.

Disposable household income (income after taxes are deducted) adjusted using an equivalence scale. It takes into account the greater income needs of larger households and the economies of scale achieved when people live together. For a lone person household, it is equal to disposable household income. For a household comprising more than one person, it indicates the disposable household income that would need to be received by a lone person household to enjoy the same level of economic well-being as the household comprising more than one person.

Household net worth adjusted using an equivalence scale (using the same approach as equivalised disposable household income but using household net worth instead of disposable household income).

Two or more people, one of whom is at least 15 years of age, who are related by blood, marriage (registered or de facto), adoption, step or fostering; and who are usually resident in the same household. The basis of a family is formed by identifying the presence of a couple relationship, lone parent-child relationship or other blood relationship. Some households will, therefore, contain more than one family.

See Employed full-time.

The Gender pay gap is the difference between male and female wages, expressed as a proportion of male wages.

Income support payments from government to people under social security and related government programs. Included are pensions and allowances received by aged, disabled, unemployed and sick people, families and children, veterans and their survivors, and study allowances for students. All overseas pensions and benefits are included here, although some may not be paid by overseas governments.

The estimated market rent that a dwelling would attract if it were to be commercially rented.

A person living alone or a group of related or unrelated people who usually live in the same private dwelling.

The value of a household's assets less the value of its liabilities. Net worth may be negative when household liabilities exceed household assets.

See Net imputed rent and Gross imputed rent.

Income consists of all current receipts, whether monetary or in kind, that are received by the household or by individual members of the household, and which are available for, or intended to support, current consumption.

Income includes receipts from:

• wages and salaries and other receipts from employment (whether from an employer or own incorporated enterprise), including income provided as part of salary sacrifice and/or salary package arrangements
• profit/loss from own unincorporated business (including partnerships)
• net investment income (interest, rent, dividends, royalties)
• government pensions and allowances (includes pensions and allowances from Commonwealth and State and Territory governments as well as pensions from overseas)
• private transfers (e.g. superannuation, workers' compensation, income from annuities, child support, and financial support received from family members not living in the same household).

Gross income is the sum of the income from all these sources before income tax, the Medicare levy and the Medicare levy surcharge are deducted. Other measures of income are Disposable income and Equivalised disposable household income.

Note that child support and other transfers from other households are not deducted from the incomes of the households making the transfers.

An industry is a group of businesses or organisations that undertake similar economic activities to produce goods and services.

In this domain: Economic Security, industry is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0) (cat no. 1292.0).

The labour force is the labour supply available for the production of economic goods and services in a given period, and is the most widely used measure of the economically active population. Persons in the labour force are classified as either employed or unemployed according to their activities during the reference week by using a specific set of priority rules.

The labour force participation rate for any group within the population is the labour force component of that group, expressed as a percentage of the population in that group.

Until recently, ABS policy has been to revise benchmarks for labour force data on a five-yearly basis following final rebasing of population estimates to the latest Census of Population and Housing data. However, labour force population benchmarks are now updated more frequently when preliminary population estimates become available, and again when these preliminary estimates are subsequently revised. For this release of Gender Indicators, Australia, labour force estimates dating back to (and including) 2011–12 have been revised in accordance with this new benchmarking process. Future revisions to benchmarks will then take place every time a new year of labour force data becomes available for publishing in the Gender Indicators publication. Re-benchmarking historical data has not resulted in any material change to unemployment rates, participation rates or employment to population ratios.

Labour force status is a classification of the civilian population aged 15 years and over into the labour force (those employed or unemployed) or into not in the labour force, as defined. The definitions conform closely to the international standard definitions adopted by the International Conferences of Labour Statisticians.

A person who has no spouse or partner present in the household but who forms a parent-child relationship with at least one dependent or non-dependent child usually resident in the household.

A person who makes provision for their food and other essentials for living, without combining with any other person to form part of a multi-person household. They may live in a dwelling on their own or share a dwelling with another individual or family.

A household in the lowest two quintiles of both equivalised adjusted disposable household income (adjusted to include imputed rent) and equivalised household net worth.

A household in the lowest quintile of equivalised household disposable income (adjusted to include imputed rent).

Low income households in rental stress are defined as those containing the 40 per cent of households in the lowest two quintiles of equivalised disposable household income and whose rental costs exceed 30 per cent of its gross income (less any Commonwealth Rental Assistance received).

A household in the lowest quintile of equivalised household net worth.

The source of income from which the most positive income is received. If total income is nil or negative the principal source is undefined. As there can be several possible sources, the main source may account for less than 50% of total income.

Employees who have strategic responsibilities in the conduct or operations of the organisation and/or are in charge of a significant number of employees. These employees usually do not have an entitlement to paid overtime. Includes professionally qualified staff who primarily perform managerial tasks in conjunction with utilising their professional skills. Owner managers of incorporated enterprises are regarded as managerial employees.

The amount of earnings which divides employees into two groups containing equal numbers of employees, one half with earnings below the median and the other half with earnings above the median. The median is less affected by outliers and skewed data than the mean, and is usually the preferred measure of central tendency when the distribution is not symmetrical.

A mortgage is a loan taken out using the usual residence as security. An owner with a mortgage must still owe money from such a loan.

Gross imputed rent less housing costs. Net imputed rent is an estimate of the value of housing services that households receive from home ownership or by households paying subsidised rent or occupying their dwelling rent free. Housing costs for the purpose of calculating net imputed rent for owner-occupiers comprise:

• rates payments (general and water)
• body corporate fees
• the interest component of repayments of loans that were obtained for the purposes of purchasing or building
• rent payments
• house insurance costs
• repair and maintenance costs.

Net imputed rent from subsidised public rentals is included as a social transfer in kind for housing.

Employees who are not managerial employees (as defined above) including non-managerial professionals and some employees with supervisory responsibilities.

Gender Indicator Table 2.8 presents data from the ABS Survey of Income and Housing, where persons having No superannuation coverage was defined as follows:

• in 2003–04 and 2005–06, No superannuation coverage included persons a) having a zero superannuation balance or no account at all; and b) not receiving a current weekly income from superannuation
• from 2009–10 onward, No superannuation coverage included persons having a zero superannuation balance or no account at all; and not receiving a current weekly income from superannuation; and not receiving personal irregular receipts from superannuation payments over the last 2 years.

Persons not in the labour force are those people who, during the reference week, were not in the categories 'employed' or 'unemployed'. They include people who were keeping house (unpaid), retired, voluntarily inactive, permanently unable to work, in jail, trainee teachers, members of contemplative religious orders, and persons whose only activity during the reference week was jury service or unpaid voluntary work for a charitable organisation.

An occupation is a collection of jobs that are sufficiently similar in their title and tasks, skill level and skill specialisation which are grouped together for the purposes of classification. In this domain, occupation is classified according to the  

ANZSCO - Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations, 2013, Version 1.2 (cat no. 1220.0).

Payments for award, standard or agreed hours of work, including allowances, penalty payments, payments by measured result and regular bonuses. Salary sacrifice amounts are included. Excluded are non-cash components of salary packages, overtime payments, and payments not related to the survey reference period, such as retrospective pay, pay in advance, leave loadings, and severance pay and termination and redundancy payments.

Where the household pays rent to the owner/ manager of a caravan park, an employer (including a government authority), a housing cooperative, a community or church group, or any other body not included elsewhere.

A unit (i.e. household, income unit or person, where applicable) which is not an owner (with or without a mortgage) or a renter. Includes rent free, life tenure, rent/ buy and shared equity schemes.

Payment for hours worked in excess of award, standard or agreed hours of work.

People who operate their own unincorporated economic enterprise or are engaged independently in a profession or trade, and do not hire employees.

Owners are divided into two categories: owners without a mortgage, and owners with a mortgage. If the person has any outstanding mortgage or loan secured against the dwelling, then the person is an owner with a mortgage. If there is no mortgage or loan secured against the dwelling, then the person is an owner without a mortgage.

People who work in their own incorporated enterprise, that is, a business entity which is registered as a separate legal entity to its members or owners (also known as a limited liability company). These people are classified as employees under status in employment. Technically they are employees, however they are similar in characteristics to owner managers of unincorporated enterprises.

People who operate their own unincorporated enterprise, that is, a business entity in which the owner and the business are legally inseparable, so that the owner is liable for any business debts that are incurred. Includes those engaged independently in a trade or profession. These people are classified as employers under status in employment if their business has employees, or own account workers if they do not.

See Labour force participation rate.

See Employed part-time.

See Employed part-time.

A person's preservation age is the minimum age that a super fund member may be able to access their preserved benefits (and is not the same as the pension age). A benefit may be paid earlier if a super fund member has met a condition of release. The preservation age varies depending on when a person was born. The following table outlines preservation ages based on when a person was born:

A unit (i.e. household, income unit or person, where applicable) paying rent to a landlord who is a real estate agent, a parent or other relative not in the same household or another person not in the same household.

All residential and non-residential properties owned by people in the household, excluding properties owned by the respondent's business.

A household paying rent to a state or territory housing authority or trust.

Groupings that result from ranking all households or people in the population in ascending order according to some characteristic, such as their household income, and then dividing the population into five equal groups, each comprising 20% of the estimated population.

A number of series under the Economic Security domain are referred to as a rate. In this context, a rate is simply a proportion (%) of a larger population, but expressed as a rate for historical reasons. For example, the unemployment rate is simply the number of people who are unemployed, expressed as a proportion (%) of all people in the labour force.

Female to male rate ratios are calculated by dividing a population of females, or a characteristic of females (e.g. female earnings for a particular industry sector and year) by the male equivalent (e.g. male earnings for the same industry and year). In this instance, a rate ratio of 1.0 indicates parity between female and male earnings, whereas a rate ratio greater than 1.0 indicates an earnings inequity in favour of females, and a rate ratio less than 1.0 indicates an earnings inequity in favour of males.

The relationship of people who live in the same household.

Rent Assistance (RA) is a non-taxable income supplement paid through Centrelink to individuals and families who rent in the private rental market. It is only paid to recipients of another government benefit or pension, and is paid in conjunction with that other benefit.

For the purpose of this domain, a household is considered to be in rental stress if its rental costs exceed 30 per cent of its gross household income (less any Commonwealth Rental Assistance received).

A household that pays rent to reside in the dwelling.

Is a tenure arrangement in which the person or income unit or household does not pay any money for lodging and is not an owner of the dwelling.

In the Tenure and Landlord Type - household data item, this category comprises renters with landlord types:

• real estate agent
• person not in same household - Parent/Other relative
• person not in same household - Other person.

People who had previously worked for two weeks or more, were not in the labour force and who did not intend to look for, or take up, paid work in the future.

An arrangement under which an employee agrees contractually to forgo part of their remuneration, which the employee would otherwise receive as wages and salaries, in return for the employer or someone associated with the employer providing benefits of a similar value (Australian Taxation Office).

A long-term savings arrangement that operates primarily with a superannuation fund in order to support future retirement.

The total amount of superannuation a person has accrued in their superannuation fund(s) which are either in the accumulation or draw down phase.

A pension or annuity from a superannuation account or retirement saving account and eligible for tax concessions. The payment must be made at least annually and must be within limits set by legislation.

The nature of a household's legal right to occupy the dwelling in which the household members usually reside. Tenure is determined according to whether residents of the household own the dwelling outright, own the dwelling but have a mortgage or loan secured against it, is paying rent to live in the dwelling or has some other arrangement to occupy the dwelling.

Total cash earnings of employees are equal to ordinary time earnings plus overtime earnings.

Underemployed workers are employed persons who want, and are available for, more hours of work than they currently have. They comprise:

• persons employed part time who want to work more hours and are available to start work with more hours, either in the reference week or in the four weeks subsequent to the survey
• persons employed full time who worked part-time hours in the reference week for economic reasons (such as being stood down or insufficient work being available). It is assumed that these people wanted to work full time in the reference week and would have been available to do so.

The number of underemployed workers expressed as a percentage of the labour force.

This is the sum of the number of persons unemployed and the number of persons in underemployment, expressed as a proportion of the labour force. See Unemployed and Underemployed workers.

Persons aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the reference week, and:

• had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week; or
• were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.

The number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force.

Work is a physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.

In this domain work refers to only economic activities conducted as part of paid employment. The concept of employment is based on the principle that a person must have been engaged in some economic activity (work) over a short reference period. These economic activities (work) are undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods or services.

People who identified themselves, or were identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait Islander origin, or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin.

See Non-formal learning.

Includes qualifications at the Advanced Diploma Level, Associate Degree Level, Diploma Level, Certificate III Level and Certificate IV Level.

Provides an indicative measure of the number of school students who have stayed in school, for a designated observation year and grade of education. It is expressed as a percentage of the respective cohort group that those students would be expected to have come from, assuming an expected rate of progression of one grade per calendar year.

Relatively small changes in the absolute numbers of a population can create large movements in rates and ratios. These populations might include smaller jurisdictions, Aboriginal and/ or Torres Strait Islander students, and subcategories of the non-government affiliation and cross tabulated characteristics.

Care should be exercised in the interpretation of apparent retention rates as the method of calculation does not take into account a range of factors including: students progressing at a faster or slower than expected rate of one grade a year; students changing between full-time or part-time study; migration (interstate/ international); inter-sector (affiliation) transfer; enrolment policies (which contribute to different age/ grade structures between states and territories); the availability of alternative education and training pathways, vocational education and training; the minimum workload for a full-time student that would ensure that the student could complete a given grade in a year.

See Apparent Retention Rate in the Methodology tab, for further information on how this series is used in Schools, Australia, 2019 (cat. no. 4221.0).

An apprentice is a person who has entered into a legal contract (called a training agreement or contract of training) with an employer, to serve a period of training for the purpose of attaining tradesperson status in a recognised trade.

Includes qualifications at the Bachelor Degree Level (including Honours), Graduate Certificate Level, Graduate Diploma Level, Master Degree Level or Doctorate Degree Level.

Survey responses are coded to Certificate not further defined (n.f.d.) when there is not enough information to code them to Certificate I, II, III or IV in the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001 (cat. no. 1272.0), Level of education classification.

Attainment is completion of education for any level. This can be completion of highest year of school completed or completion of any non-school level qualification completed.

Participation relates to formal learning undertaken in the last 12 months prior to the survey.

For any group within the population, it is the number of people attending formal learning in an educational institution (either full-time or part-time) expressed as a percentage of the population in that group.

Employed persons includes all persons aged 15 years and over who, during the reference week:

• worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind in a job or business, or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers)
• worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers)
• were employees who had a job but were not at work and were:
  • away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week
  • away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week
  • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement
  • on strike or locked out
  • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job
• were employers or own account workers, who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

Persons employed full-time are those employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.

Persons employed part-time are those employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week (in all jobs) and either did so during the reference week, or were not at work in the reference week.

Refers to persons registered for a course of formal study in the particular reference period (e.g. survey month, or previous calendar year).

The estimated resident population is an estimate of the population of Australia, based on data from the five-yearly ABS Census of Population and Housing, and is updated quarterly using information on births, deaths, and overseas and internal migration provided by state, territory and Australian Government departments. See Australian Demographic Statistics, June 2019 (cat. no. 3101.0) for further details.

Field of education is defined as the subject matter of an educational activity. It is categorised according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001 (cat. no. 1272.0) Field of education classification. This publication presents the main field of education studied in non-school qualification.

Field not determined includes inadequately described responses or where no responses were given.

Any study being undertaken that will lead to a recognised qualification, issued by a relevant approved body, in recognition that a person has achieved learning outcomes or competencies relevant to identified individual, professional, industry or community needs. This includes study for a school qualification.

A formal qualification is awarded for education attainment after completing formal study. Formal qualifications are awarded based on the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) and may include qualifications awarded after completing some formal workplace training.

A full-time student is one who undertakes a workload equivalent to, or greater than, that prescribed for a full-time student of that year level. This may vary between states and territories and from grade to grade.

Labour force status is a classification of the civilian population aged 15 years and over into the labour force (those employed or unemployed) or into not in the labour force, as defined. The definitions conform closely to the international standard definitions adopted by the International Conferences of Labour Statisticians.

Level of education is a function of the quality and quantity of learning involved in an educational activity. It is categorised according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001  (cat. no. 1272.0) Level of Education classification.

A person's level of highest non-school qualification is the highest qualification a person has attained in any area of formal study other than school study. It is categorised according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001 (cat. no. 1272.0) Level of education classification.

Level not determined includes inadequately described responses or where no response was given.

The main subject matter of the study undertaken by a person in completing an educational activity. Where a qualification covered multiple fields (e.g. a double degree) the 'main' field is the one considered most important. It is categorised according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED), 2001 Field of education classification. Main field of education is also classified according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), 2011.

The main field of study undertaken by a person in completing the person's highest educational qualification, other than attainments of primary or secondary education.

Median is the midpoint or middle value of a set of values when the values are sorted in order.

Non-formal learning activities are structured training or courses that do not form part of an award or qualification (e.g. Degree or Certificate) recognised by the Australian Qualification Framework (AQF).

People who did not identify themselves, or were not identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.

Non-school qualifications are awarded for educational attainments other than those of pre-primary, primary or secondary education. They include qualifications at the Postgraduate Degree level, Master Degree level, Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate level, Bachelor Degree level, Advanced Diploma and Diploma level, and Certificates I, II, III and IV levels. Non-school qualifications may be attained concurrently with school qualifications.

Those not fully engaged in education and/or employment are those who in the survey reference week were:

• not studying or working (and therefore unemployed or not in the labour force)
• studying part-time and not working (therefore unemployed or not in the labour force)
• not studying but were in part-time work.

Persons who were not in the categories employed or unemployed, as defined. They include people who undertook unpaid household duties or other voluntary work only, were retired, voluntarily inactive and those permanently unable to work.

The knowledge and skills required to effectively manage and respond to the mathematical demands of diverse situations.

Formal certification, issued by a relevant approved body, in recognition that a person has achieved an appropriate level of learning outcomes or competencies relevant to identified individual, professional, industry or community needs. Statements of attainment awarded for partial completion of a course of study at a particular level are excluded.

For the purpose of this domain, the gross cash income received as return to labour from an employer or from a person's own incorporated business. It includes additional payments such as overtime and bonuses.

An educational institution whose major activity is the provision of formal classes of primary or secondary education, or the provision of primary or secondary distance education.

A trainee is a person who has entered into a legal contract (called a training agreement or contract of training) with an employer, to serve a period of training in a vocational area (e.g. office administration, information technology, hospitality).

Persons aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the reference week, and:

• had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week
• were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.

Work is a physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.

In this domain work refers to only economic activities conducted as part of paid employment. The concept of employment is based on the principle that a person must have been engaged in some economic activity (work) over a short reference period. These economic activities (work) are undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods or services. The Economic Security domain also uses this definition of work.

The Work and Family Balance domain uses a broader definition of work and includes both paid and unpaid work. Paid work includes activities undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods and services, and unpaid work is primarily household or community work undertaken without pay that could be replaced by market goods and services.

Non-formal learning undertaken to obtain, maintain or improve employment related skills and/or to improve employment opportunities (i.e. seeking employment, promotion or starting own business). Work-related training courses have a structured format but do not lead to a qualification.

Includes any of the following: Year 12; Certificate II, III, or IV; Advanced Diploma or Diploma; Bachelor Degree; Graduate Diploma or Graduate Certificate; or Post Graduate Degree.

People who identified themselves, or were identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait Islander origin, or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin.

Age-specific death rates (ASDRs) are the number of deaths (occurred or registered) during the calendar year at a specified age per 100,000 of the estimated resident population of the same age at the mid-point of the year (30 June). Pro rata adjustment is made in respect of deaths for which the age of the deceased is not given.

An age standardised rate is calculated to remove the effects of different age structures when comparing populations over time. A standard age composition is used, in this case the age composition of the Estimated Resident Population (ERP) of Australia at 30 June 2001. An age standardised rate is that which would have prevailed if the actual population had the standard age composition.

This technique is often used to make comparisons between the non-Indigenous and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, because the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population has a younger population than the non-Indigenous population.

To understand how the number of deaths by particular causes differ between males and females, and how they change over time, age-standardised death rates (SDRs) are used, as they enable the comparison of mortality levels between populations with different age structures. SDRs enable the comparison between populations with different age structures by relating them to a standard population. The ABS standard populations relate to the years ending in 1 (e.g. 2001). The current standard population is all persons in the Australian population at 30 June 2001. SDRs are expressed per 1,000 or 100,000 persons.

There are two methods of calculating standardised death rates:

• the direct method - this is used when the populations under study are large and the age-specific death rates are reliable. It is the overall death rate that would have prevailed in the standard population if it had experienced, at each age, the death rates of the population under study
• the indirect method - this is used when the populations under study are small and the age-specific death rates are unreliable or not known. It is an adjustment to the crude death rate of the standard population to account for the variation between the actual number of deaths in the population under study and the number of deaths which would have occurred if the population under study had experienced the age-specific death rates of the standard population.

SDRs in the Health domain have been calculated using the direct method.

More recent ABS surveys referenced in Gender Indicators publication use the 2009 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Guidelines, while older ABS surveys referenced in Gender Indicators publication used the 2001 NHMRC Guidelines.  Both are presented below.

2001 NHMRC Guidelines 

Alcohol consumption risk levels have been derived from the average daily consumption of alcohol by persons aged 15 years and over on the three most recent days of the week prior to interview and are grouped into relative risk levels as defined by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). In 2001, long-term risk levels were classified as follows:

These guidelines have since been superseded by lifetime risk guidelines as published in 2009 by the NHMRC in Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol. The 2009 guidelines align the definition of what constitutes risky alcohol consumption for males and females. That is, the consumption of more than two standard drinks per day by either a male or female, presents a risk over that individual's lifetime.

It should be noted that risk level as defined by the National Health Medical Research Council is based on regular consumption levels of alcohol, whereas estimates of risk from the National Health Survey (cat. no. 4364.0.55.001) do not take into account whether consumption in the reference week was more, less or the same as usual.

The level of lifetime risk is associated with regular daily patterns of drinking. Alcohol consumption status information was also collected in the National Health Survey: First Results (cat. no. 4364.0.55.001) for those who did not consume any alcohol in the seven days prior to interview. The categories were:

• Last consumed more than one week to less than 12 months ago
• Last consumed 12 months or more ago
• Never consumed.

Data for 15–17 year age group has only been collected since 2007-08.

2009 NHMRC Guidelines 

2009 NHMRC Guidelines - Alcohol consumption 

Alcohol consumption risk levels were assessed using the single occasion and lifetime risk guidelines from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) 2009 Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol.

• These two guidelines are for people aged 18 years and over and recommend a maximum number of standard drinks per day. A standard drink contains 12.5 millilitres (mLs) of alcohol.

• A separate guideline advises that, for people aged 15–17 years, the safest option is to delay the initiation of drinking alcohol for as long as possible. In this survey, people aged 15–17 years are assessed against the single occasion and lifetime risk guidelines to provide an estimate of the level of risk for this age group.

Alcohol consumption is likely to be under-reported. Some people who drank alcohol may not have reported it, and some may have reported it but understated the quantity consumed. The extent to which under-reporting has occurred is not able to be quantified.

2009 NHMRC Guidelines - Single occasion risk guideline

The single occasion risk guideline advises healthy males and females to drink no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion to reduce the risk of alcohol-related injury arising from that occasion.

In this survey, a person was considered to have exceeded the single occasion risk guideline if they had consumed more than four standard drinks on at least one day in the last 12 months.

• This was assessed using a person’s response to questions about the number of times in the last 12 months they had consumed five or more standard drinks in one day.
• The number of standard was as reported by the person. This is different to the lifetime risk guideline, where the number of standard drinks was derived from information about the number, type, brand, and serving size of drinks consumed.

2009 NHMRC Guidelines - Lifetime risk guideline 

The lifetime risk guideline advises healthy males and females to drink no more than two standard drinks per day to reduce the risk of harm from alcohol-related disease or injury over their lifetime.

In ABS surveys, a person was considered to have exceeded the lifetime risk guideline if they had consumed more than two standard drinks per day on average in the last week. It was assumed the level of alcohol consumption in the last week was typical.

The average number of standard drinks per day was derived from information provided by the person about:

• the number, type, brand, and serving sizes of alcoholic drinks consumed on (up to a maximum of) the three most recent days alcohol was consumed in the week prior to interview, and

• the total number of days alcohol was consumed that week.

It was derived by:

• calculating the total amount of alcohol consumed (in mLs) for each drink type by multiplying the alcohol content (%) by the volume (mL), based on the type (e.g. light beer, red wine), brand and number of drinks reported on the maximum of three most recent days alcohol was consumed in the previous week

• summing the drink type results to derive the total alcohol consumption for the maximum of three most recent days alcohol was consumed

• dividing that result by the number of days on which alcohol consumption was reported (that is, by one, two or three) to derive average daily alcohol consumption for those days

• multiplying that daily average by the total number of days alcohol was consumed that week, and
• dividing the result by seven to arrive at the average number of standard drinks consumed per day.

Anxiety related disorders differ from normal feelings of nervousness or anxiousness, and involve excessive fear or anxiety. In the National Health Survey (cat. no. 4364.0.55.001), the following anxiety related disorders were collected: Panic Disorder, Phobic anxiety disorders, Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

There are two different definitions depending on the source publication:

• National Health Survey (NHS) - Arthritis is characterised by an inflammation of the joints often resulting in pain, stiffness, disability and deformity.
• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) - A long-term health condition involving inflammation of the joints often resulting in pain, stiffness, disability and deformity.

There are two different definitions depending on the source publication:

• National Health Survey (NHS) - A chronic disease marked by episodes of wheezing, chest tightness and shortness of breath associated with wide-spread narrowing of the airways within the lungs and obstruction of airflow. To be current, symptoms of asthma or treatment of asthma must have occurred in the last 12 months.
• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) – A long-term health condition marked by episodes of wheezing, chest tightness and shortness of breath associated with widespread narrowing of the airways within the lungs and obstruction of airflow. To be current, symptoms of asthma or treatment of asthma must have occurred in the last 12 months.

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a simple index of weight-for-height, commonly used for defining whether a person is underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese.

A BMI score is calculated using the formula weight (in kilograms) divided by the square of height (in metres). For example, a person who weighs 70 kilograms and whose height is 1.75 metres will have a BMI of 22.9 (70/(1.75m2) = 70/3.06 = 22.9).

There were two measures of BMI in this survey:

• Self-reported (for people aged two years and over) — based on a person reporting their height and weight

• Measured (for people aged two years and over) — based on a measure of the person’s height and weight, voluntarily taken by the interviewer at the time of interview.

Interviewers used digital scales to measure weight (maximum 200 kilograms) and a stadiometer to measure height (maximum 210 centimetres). Women who advised they were pregnant were not measured. For more information see Appendix - physical measurements in National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey Methodology.

People aged 18 years and over were classified as underweight, normal weight, overweight or obese based on their BMI score as recommended by the World Health Organization’s BMI Classification:

• Underweight Class 3 — 15.99 or less

• Underweight Class 2 — 16.00–16.99

• Underweight Class 1 — 17.00–18.49

• Normal range — 18.50–24.99

• Overweight — 25.00–29.99

• Obese Class 1 — 30.00–34.99

• Obese Class 2 — 35.00–39.99

• Obese Class 3 — 40.00 or more.

BMI categories for children aged 2–17 years were:

• Underweight — Class 3, Class 2, and Class 1

• Normal range

• Overweight

• Obese Class 1.

Separate BMI classifications were produced for children. The BMI scores for each category take into account the age and sex of the child. For a detailed list of the cut-offs see Appendix 4 in the National Health Survey: Users’ Guide, 2017–18 (cat. no. 4363.0).

From 2014-15 onwards, imputation was used for respondents for whom physical measurements were not taken.

See Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY).

Cancer is a condition in which the body's cells grow and spread in an uncontrolled manner. A cancerous cell can arise from almost any cell, and therefore cancer can be found almost anywhere in the body.

The medical certificate of cause of death records all those diseases, morbid conditions or injuries which either resulted in or contributed to death, and the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced any such injuries. Underlying causes of death are classified to the International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision.

A person has a core activity limitation if they need help, have difficulty, or use aids or equipment with mobility, self-care and/or communication. A core activity limitation is classified as profound, severe, moderate or mild based on their highest level of limitation in any of those activities. See also Disability status.

A respondent who reported at the time of interview that they smoked cigarettes, cigars or pipes, either daily or less frequently.

Death is the permanent disappearance of all evidence of life after birth has taken place. The definition excludes all deaths prior to live birth. For the purposes of the Deaths, Australia (cat. no. 3302.0) and Causes of Death, Australia (cat. no. 3303.0) collections of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), a death refers to any death that occurs in, or en route to Australia and is registered with a state or territory Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

There are two different definitions depending on the source publication:

• National Health Survey (NHS) - A chronic condition in which blood glucose levels become too high due to the body producing little or no insulin, or not using insulin properly. Data on diabetes refers to persons who reported having been told by a doctor or nurse that they had diabetes (including persons who were not ever told or not know), irrespective of whether the person considered their diabetes to be current or long-term.
• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) – A long-term health condition in which blood glucose levels become too high due to the body producing little or no insulin, or not responding to insulin properly. Excludes gestational diabetes.

There are two different definitions depending on whether the source publication is the National Health Survey or the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey:

National Health Survey (NHS) – A disability or restrictive long-term health condition exists if a limitation, restriction, impairment, disease or disorder has lasted, or is expected to last, for six months or more, which restricts everyday activities.

A disability or restrictive long-term condition is classified by whether or not a person has a specific limitation or restriction. The specific limitation or restriction is further classified by whether the limitation or restriction is a limitation in core activities, or a schooling/employment restriction only.

There are five levels of activity limitation (profound, severe, moderate, mild and school/employment restriction only). These are based on whether a person needs help, has difficulty, or uses aids or equipment with any core activities (mobility, self-care and communication). A person's overall level of core activity limitation is determined by their highest level of limitation in any of these activities.

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) – A person has a disability if they have an impairment which restricts their everyday activities and has lasted, or is expected to last, for at least six months. A person with a disability is classified by whether they have:

• a specific limitation with any core activities (mobility, communication and self-care)
• a specific restriction when participating in schooling or employment activities, or
• no specific limitation with core activities or restriction with schooling or employment activities.

The DALY is a measure that combines information about the years of healthy life lost due to either premature mortality (relative to a standard life expectancy) or to years lived with a disability (here disability means any departure from full health, and includes conditions that range from the common cold to quadriplegia). It is an incidence-based measure.

The burden of disease can be quantified by DALYs, for example, one DALY represents one lost year of healthy life due to disability or premature death. The more DALYs, the greater the burden.

Any death directly caused by an acute episode of poisoning or toxicity to drugs, including deaths from accidental overdoses, suicide and assault, and any death from an acute condition caused by habitual drug use. The term 'drug' refers to substances classified as drugs that may be used for medicinal or therapeutic purposes and those that produce a psychoactive effect excluding alcohol, tobacco and volatile solvents (e.g. petrol).

The official measure of the population of Australia is based on the concept of residence. It refers to all people, regardless of nationality or citizenship, who usually live in Australia, with the exception of foreign diplomatic personnel and their families. It includes usual residents who are overseas for less than 12 months. It excludes overseas visitors who are in Australia for less than 12 months.

Deaths due to causes external to the body (for example suicide, transport accidents, falls, poisoning etc).

Heart, stroke and vascular disease refers to persons who reported having been told by a doctor or nurse that they had any of a range of circulatory conditions comprising:

• Ischaemic heart diseases (angina, heart attack and other ischaemic heart diseases)
• Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases)
• Oedema
• Heart failure
• Diseases of the arteries, arterioles and capillaries

and that their condition was current and long-term; that is, their condition was current at the time of interview and had lasted, or was expected to last, 6 months or more.

However, all persons who reported having ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, heart failure and rheumatic heart disease are included, even if they were not reported to be current and long-term at the time of interview. These conditions are automatically considered to be current and long term. Estimates of heart, stroke and vascular disease for 2007-08, 2011-12, 2014-15 and 2017-18 in this publication are presented using this definition. There is limited comparability between 2007-08 and previous years due to a change in derivation methodology in 2007-08.

High sugar levels in blood or urine. See also Diabetes mellitus.

Refers to a classification developed by the ABS for use in ABS health surveys based on the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases and Health Related Problems. The purpose of the ICD is to permit the systematic recording, analysis, interpretation and comparison of mortality and morbidity data collected in different countries or areas and at different times. The ICD, which is endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), is primarily designed for the classification of diseases and injuries with a formal diagnosis.

The classification of long-term conditions most commonly used in output from the National Health Survey: First Results (cat. no. 4364.0.55.001) and National Health Survey: Summary of Results (cat. no. 4364.0) were developed based on ICD-10.

The number of new cases of a particular characteristic, such as cancer, which occur within a certain period. This differs from prevalence, which refers to the number of cases of a particular characteristic that are present in a population at one point in time.

There are two different definitions depending on the source publication:

• National Health Survey (NHS) - A disease of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle, which includes angina, heart attack and other ischaemic diseases.
• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) – A long-term health condition, also called coronary artery disease, involving the build-up of plaque (fatty material) in the heart’s arteries, causing them to narrow, reducing blood flow and oxygen to the heart (ischaemia). It includes angina (chest pain and discomfort) and heart attack.

See Psychological distress.

Ranking causes of death is a useful method for describing patterns of mortality in a population and allows comparison over time and between populations. Tabulations of leading causes presented in this publication are based on research presented in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Volume 84, Number 4, April 2006, 297-304. See ‘Leading causes of death’ in the ‘Mortality tabulations and methodologies’ section of the Methodology in Causes of Death, Australia, 2019.

Level of exercise is based on frequency, intensity (i.e. walking, moderate exercise and vigorous exercise) and duration of exercise (for fitness, recreation or sport). From these components, an exercise score was derived using factors to represent the intensity of the exercise:

• 3.5 for walking
• 5.0 for moderate exercise
• 7.5 for vigorous exercise.

Scores were grouped into the following four categories:

Inadequate exercise levels are sedentary and low exercise levels. Sedentary refers to sitting in one place for extended periods of time.

Until 2007-08 the National Health Survey collected information on exercise engaged in during the two weeks prior to interview. Since then level of exercise undertaken during one week prior to interview has been collected.

Life expectancy refers to the average number of additional years a person of a given age and sex might expect to live if the age-specific death rates of the given period continued throughout his/ her lifetime.

There are two different definitions depending on the source publication:

• National Health Survey (NHS) - A medical condition (illness, injury or disability) that has lasted at least six months, or which the respondent expects to last for six months or more. Some reported conditions were assumed to be long-term, including arthritis, cancer, diabetes, rheumatic heart disease, heart attack, angina, heart failure and stroke. Diabetes, rheumatic heart disease, heart attack, angina, heart failure and stroke were also assumed to be current.
• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) – An illness, injury or disability which has lasted at least six months, or which the person expects to last for six months or more.
  • Asthma, arthritis, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes (excluding gestational diabetes), sight and hearing problems are assumed to be long-term.
  • Heart attack, angina, heart failure and stroke are assumed to be both current and long-term.

Medicare is Australia’s universal health insurance scheme. Services include access to free treatment as a public (Medicare) patient in a public hospital, and free or subsidised treatment by medical practitioners including general practitioners, specialists, and participating optometrists or dentists (specified services only).

Includes alcohol and drug problems, mood (affective) disorders, anxiety related disorders, organic mental disorders and other mental and behavioural conditions.

A mental health disorder (or mental illness) is a clinically recognisable set of symptoms or behaviours associated with distress and with interference with personal functions. Most diagnoses require criteria relating to severity and duration to be met.

Disorders that involve mood disturbance. Examples include Bipolar Affective Disorder, Depressive episodes and Dysthymia.

Morbidity refers to ill health in an individual and to levels of ill health in a population or group.

See Death.

There are two different definitions depending on the source publication:

• National Health Survey (NHS) - A neoplasm is a new growth of abnormal tissue (a tumour). Tumours can be either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancer). Cancer refers to several diseases and can affect most types of cells in various parts of the body.

• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) – A new growth of abnormal tissue (a tumour) that is either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancer).

Refers to people who don't identify themselves, or were not identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.

For adults’ overweight is defined by a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than or equal to 25 and less than 30, while obese is defined by a BMI greater than or equal to 30. BMI is body weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in metres. Calculations may be based on measured or self-reported height and weight. From 2014-15 onwards, imputation was used for respondents for whom physical measurements were not taken.

A death that is either a fetal death (i.e. a death prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from its mother as a product of conception of at least 20 completed weeks of gestation or with a birth weight of at least 400 grams), or a neonatal death (i.e. death of a live born baby within 28 completed days from birth).

Refers to the ABS’ interpretation of the physical activity component (excluding workplace activity) of the Department of Health guidelines, Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines (2014 guidelines). The guidelines differ by age group. To meet the guidelines, people needed to do varying combinations of some or all of the following physical activities:

• walking for transport
• walking for fitness, recreation or sport
• moderate intensity exercise
• vigorous intensity exercise
• strength or toning activities.

The number of cases of a particular characteristic (e.g. a specific long-term condition such as cancer) that is present in a population at one point in time. This differs from incidence, which refers to the number of new cases of a particular characteristic occurring within a certain period.

A person with a profound core activity limitation is unable to do, or always needs help with, a core activity task (mobility, communication, or self-care). A person with a severe core activity limitation sometimes needs help or has difficulty with a core activity task.

Derived from the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10). This is a scale of non-specific psychological distress based on 10 questions about negative emotional states in the four weeks prior to interview. The K10 is scored from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating a higher level of distress while low scores indicate a low level of distress. Scores are grouped as follows:

• Low levels of distress (10-15)
• Moderate levels of distress (16-21)
• High levels of distress (22-29)
• Very high levels of distress (30-50).

Data are only collected from respondents aged 18 years and over.

A measure of non-specific psychological distress experienced recently, derived from a modified version of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) called the Kessler 5. It uses five questions instead of 10, and is designed for use in surveys of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Responses to the questions were combined to produce an overall score between five and 25. The scores were then grouped to describe the level of psychological distress as low/moderate (5–11) or high/very high (12–25).

See Level of exercise.

There are two different definitions depending on whether the source publication is the National Health Survey or the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey:

• National Health Survey (NHS) – Refers to the frequency of smoking of tobacco, including manufactured (packet) cigarettes, roll-your-own cigarettes, cigars and pipes, but excluding chewing tobacco, electronic cigarettes (and similar) and smoking of non-tobacco products. Categorised as:
  • current daily smoker - a respondent who reported at the time of interview that they regularly smoked one or more cigarettes, cigars or pipes per day
  • current smoker: Other - a respondent who reported at the time of interview that they smoked cigarettes, cigars or pipes, less frequently than daily
  • ex-smoker - a respondent who reported they did not currently smoke, but had regularly smoked daily, or had smoked at least 100 cigarettes, or smoked pipes, cigars, etc at least 20 times in their lifetime and
  • never smoked - a respondent who reported they had never regularly smoked daily, and had smoked less than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and had smoked pipes, cigars, etc less than 20 times.

Data was collected from respondents aged 15 years and over. Data for 15-17 year age group has only been collected since 2007-08.

• National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey (NATSIHS) - Refers to the extent to which a person was regularly smoking tobacco products at the time of interview. A person’s smoker status for tobacco products was categorised as:
  • current daily smoker - a person who reported they regularly smoked one or more cigarettes, pipes, cigars or other tobacco products per day
  • current smoker less than daily - a person who reported they smoked cigarettes, pipes, cigars or other tobacco products less frequently than daily
  • ex-smoker - a person who reported they did not currently smoke but had previously either regularly smoked daily, smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, or smoked pipes, cigars, or other tobacco products at least 20 times in their lifetime 
  • never smoked - a person who reported they had never regularly smoked daily, smoked less than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime and had smoked pipes, cigars, or other tobacco products less than 20 times in their lifetime.

See Age-standardised death rate (SDR).

Respondents were not advised what activities they should include as sport or physical recreation. However, activities such as gardening, housework, manual labouring and other forms of occupational physical activity were excluded.

Substance use disorders include harmful use and/or dependence on drugs and/or alcohol.

The probability of survival to 85 years represents the proportion of survivors from birth to 85 years in a life table. Life tables are based on three years ending in the reference year of the table.

The description of particular tasks or occupations that were being done during a person's day.

Care is provided by any person in Australia aged 15 years or over who:

• had their own child(ren) aged under 15 years living with them
• looked after their own child(ren) aged under 15 years who do not usually live with them
• looked after a child other than their own child aged under 15 years of age
• helped or supported a frail aged person in day-to-day activities
• helped or supported any person aged 15 years or over with a short- or long-term sickness, injury or condition with day-to-day activities.

For the purposes of Tables 10.1 (under 'Childcare' activity group), 10.2, 10.4 and 10.5 in the Work and Family Balance data cube, the care was not provided as part of paid or voluntary work. For the purpose of Table 10.1 (under 'Voluntary work and care' activity group) in this data cube, care refers to voluntary care only.

A carer is a person in the household specified as the provider of assistance to a person with disability; or a person who identifies him/ herself as the provider of assistance to a person with a long-term illness or disability living in another household.

For the purpose of Table 10.1 (under 'Voluntary work and care' activity group) in the Work and Family Balance data cube this activity category included physical care and emotional support as well as any other activities done for anyone outside the household who was sick, frail or who had a disability.

When care is provided by any person aged 15 years or over to:

• his/ her own child(ren) aged under 15 years living with them
• his/ her own child(ren) aged under 15 years who do not usually live with them
• a child other than his/ her own child aged under 15 years of age.

For the purpose of Table 10.1 (under 'Voluntary work and care' activity group) in the Work and Family Balance data cube, care refers to care only performed as part of voluntary work.

A person of any age who is a natural, adopted, step, or foster son or daughter of a couple or lone parent, usually resident in the same household. A child is also any individual under 15 years of age, usually resident in the household, who forms a parent-child relationship with another member in the household. This includes otherwise related children and unrelated children under 15 years of age. In these cases, in order to be classified as a child, the person can have no child or partner of their own usually resident in the household.

A major activity classification group that relates to all activities done for children aged under 15 years. It contains activities such as the physical and emotional care of children, teaching, reprimanding, playing with and talking to children. It also includes minding children and visiting child care establishments or schools.

Disability is an umbrella term for impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Disability (as collected) is the presence of a limitation, restriction or impairment due to a physical, emotional or nervous condition which had lasted or was likely to last six months or more.

A major activity classification group (See Total housework and Total other household work).

Employed persons includes all persons aged 15 years and over who, during the reference week:

• worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission or payment in kind in a job or business, or on a farm (comprising employees, employers and own account workers)
• worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers)
• were employees who had a job but were not at work and were:
  • away from work for less than four weeks up to the end of the reference week
  • away from work for more than four weeks up to the end of the reference week and received pay for some or all of the four week period to the end of the reference week
  • away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement
  • on strike or locked out
  • on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job
• were employers or own account workers, who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

Persons employed full-time are those employed persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and those who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.

Persons employed part-time are those employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week (in all jobs) and either did so during the reference week, or were not at work in the reference week.

A person who works for a public or private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary, a retainer fee from their employer while working on a commission basis, tips, piece rates, or payment in kind, or a person who operates their own incorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees. Please note that this definition differs to that used for data on employment conditions in the 'Economic Security' chapter of this publication.

A major activity classification group which includes activities carried out in paid employment, or unpaid work in a family business or farm; job search activities such as travel to work or in the course of job search, and time spent in the workplace during work breaks. Looking at job advertisements in a newspaper has been coded as job search. In cases where respondents who were not in the labour force according to their interview reported doing clerical and related work at home, and their spouse was self-employed, these activities were coded as unpaid work in a family business.

Labour force status is a classification of the civilian population aged 15 years and over into the 'labour force' (those employed or unemployed) or into 'not in the labour force', as defined. The definitions conform closely to the international standard definitions adopted by the International Conferences of Labour Statisticians.

Includes any employer that is a natural person, or a body or association (whether incorporated or not) that is not part of the public sector/government, be that federal, state, territory (including state/territory owned organisations/ enterprises), local or an authority. For example, non-public sector employers include higher education institutions, privately or publicly listed enterprises/companies, religious entities, schools or medical institutions that are not government owned, clubs, unions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's).

Persons not in the labour force are those people who, during the reference week, were not in the categories 'employed' or 'unemployed'. They include people who were keeping house (unpaid), retired, voluntarily inactive, permanently unable to work, in jail, trainee teachers, members of contemplative religious orders, and persons whose only activity during the reference week was jury service or unpaid voluntary work for a charitable organisation.

Overall life satisfaction is a summary measure of subjective wellbeing against a scale ranging from 0 to 10, where 0 means "not at all satisfied" and 10 means "completely satisfied". It measures a person's perceived level of life satisfaction in general and doesn't take into account specific illnesses or problems the person may have.

Paid work is work activity undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods or services in the marketplace. It also includes work activity undertaken without pay in a family business, as well as travel associated with work activity.

A person in a couple relationship with another person usually resident in the same household. The couple relationship may be in either a registered or de facto marriage and includes same-sex couples.

Primary activity is the main activity undertaken by the respondent and is recorded by the respondent in the first column of the diary under 'What was your main activity'.

A person who is the largest provider of informal assistance, in terms of help or supervision, to a person with one or more disabilities. The assistance has to be ongoing, or likely to be ongoing, for at least six months and be provided for one or more core activities (communication, mobility and self-care).

Whether a person provided care in the reference week. See Care.

A major activity classification group that includes activities such as purchasing consumer and durable goods, and buying repair services and administrative services.

The week preceding the week in which the interview was conducted.

Secondary activity is the activity undertaken in addition to the primary activity. In addition to recording primary activities, the respondents are also asked to record in the third diary column: 'What else were you doing at the same time'.

The activity group 'Domestic activities' has been further divided into two sub-group:, 'Total housework' and 'Total other household work'. Total housework includes food preparation, service and clean-up; washing, ironing and clothes care; and other housework such as indoor cleaning and tidying activities. The reason for this division is that previous time use studies have shown men's domestic work is mostly identified in 'Total other household work', and women's domestic work is mostly identified in 'Total housework'.

Includes domestic management, home and car maintenance and improvement, pet care and care of the grounds. Associated travel is not included.

Activities performed in the preceding 12 months were collected for each organisation for which a volunteer worked, up to a maximum of three organisations. Volunteers may have performed multiple activities for each organisation. When a volunteer worked for more than three organisations in the preceding 12 months, activity information was only collected for the three organisations for which the volunteer worked the most hours. The categories are:

• Administration/clerical work/recruitment - Office work, typing and word processing, answering phones, filing, basic bookkeeping. Includes conducting campaigns for recruiting volunteers. Recruiting volunteers for a fundraising program was coded under this category rather than fundraising.
• Befriending/supportive listening/counselling/mentoring - Includes providing companionship, staffing help lines and participating in mentoring schemes, e.g. for young people or for mothers in disadvantaged circumstances.
• Coaching/judging/refereeing - Includes training sports teams, adjudicating competitions for agricultural or wine shows, public speaking contests, umpiring sporting contests.
• Fundraising/sales - Includes a range of activities directed predominantly towards assisting organisations to raise money for their own programs or for those of another organisation. Examples include: door-knocking, selling buttons on button day, making or selling items on a stall or in a charity shop.
• Management/committee work - Participation in management committees and functions, which involves making decisions about the direction and operation of an organisation. Examples include: sitting on a board, being an office bearer, being a member of the management board of a community welfare organisation, treasurer for the local church, managing a service or program, program planning.
• Performing/media production - Includes performing, public radio and television, producing films and videos/ DVDs, newsletters, pamphlets and other printed material and equivalent material produced on the Internet.
• Personal care/assistance - Includes a wide range of activities such as: supervising or providing help with showering/bathing, dressing, eating, using the toilet and health care activities such as helping to administer medication, or dressing wounds.
• Preparing/serving food - Includes food and drink preparation, serving meals and cleaning up. Examples include assisting in school tuck-shops, helping with meals at children's camps, community sausage sizzles and reheating and serving frozen meals provided to frail aged people.

Persons aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the reference week, and:

• had actively looked for full-time or part-time work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the reference week and were available for work in the reference week, or
• were waiting to start a new job within four weeks from the end of the reference week and could have started in the reference week if the job had been available then.

Household or community work activity undertaken without pay (excluding work in a family business) that could be replaced by market goods or paid services. It includes: volunteering or other community work undertaken without pay, domestic work, child care, informal care of older people or people with disability, shopping, and communication and travel associated with these activities.

A major activity classification group that includes physical and emotional caring activities for adults, unpaid work for organisations and assisting family, friends, neighbours and others.

See also Volunteering. Note that this category is not directly comparable to Volunteering data from the General Social Survey.

The provision of unpaid help willingly given in the form of time, service or skills, to an organisation, club, or association. The General Social Survey (GSS) excludes unpaid voluntary work through an organisation if undertaken overseas. 

The following forms of unpaid work are not strictly "willingly given" and have been excluded: 

• taking part in Community Work under Mutual Obligation 
• work experience or an unpaid work trial 
• a community service order 
• a student placement
• emergency work during an industrial dispute (not excluded in 2019).

The reference period was the 12 months preceding the survey.

In the GSS, this item is called Unpaid voluntary work through an organisation.

Work is a physical or mental effort or activity directed toward the production or accomplishment of something.

The Work and Family Balance domain uses a broader definition of work and includes both paid and unpaid work. Paid work includes activities undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods and services, and unpaid work is primarily household or community work undertaken without pay that could be replaced by market goods and services.

In the Economic Security and Education domains, work refers to only economic activities conducted as part of paid employment. The concept of employment is based on the principle that a person must have been engaged in some economic activity (work) over a short reference period. These economic activities (work) are undertaken for remuneration or salary in the production of goods or services.

Working arrangements that were used so that the respondent could care for someone in the week prior to the interview. Arrangements include: paid leave, unpaid leave, flexible working hours, rostered days off, working from home, informal arrangements with employer or taking a child in to work.

Please note: the safety and justice data contained in this publication presents a mix of survey and administrative data. For example, Assault data uses survey data, while Sexual Assault data uses administrative data. These two data sources are not comparable, since the Sexual Assault figures exclude crime that is not reported to police. Users are advised not to compare between different data sources. Please refer to the source at the bottom of spreadsheets or graphs to find about more information about the data source used.

Acts intended to threaten or harass, or acts that unlawfully deprive another person of their freedom of movement, that are against that person's will or against the will of any parent, guardian or other person having lawful custody or care of that person. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Abduction and kidnapping, Deprivation of liberty/false imprisonment and Harassment and threatening behaviour.

People who identified themselves, or were identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait Islander origin, or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin.

Acts, excluding attempted murder and those resulting in death, which are intended to cause non-fatal injury or harm to another person and where there is no sexual or acquisitive element. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Assault and Other acts intended to cause injury.

An adult prisoner is a person who is aged 18 years and over in all states and territories except Queensland, where an adult prisoner is a person aged 17 years and over.

Age standardisation is a statistical method that adjusts crude rates to account for age differences between study populations. Age standardisation enables better comparisons between different populations. In the context of such a comparison, the key variable of interest is the ratio of rates, rather than the age standardised rates alone.

The longest period that the convicted prisoner may be detained for the current sentenced offences in the current episode. This is also the maximum sentence length for a convicted prisoner for the current episode.

The attempted unlawful killing of another person where there is either the intent to kill or to cause grievous bodily harm with the knowledge that it was probable that death or grievous bodily harm would occur (reckless indifference to life), not resulting in death.

The Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC), 2011 (cat. no. 1234.0) is a hierarchical classification system developed by the ABS for use in the collection and publication of crime and justice statistics. It provides a classificatory framework for the comparison of statistics on offences across Australia. ANZSOC 2011 replaced the second edition of the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC, 2008). It incorporated a title change from ASOC to ANZSOC and corrected some minor typographical errors only. The revised title ANZSOC has been developed for use within Australia and New Zealand.

The unlawful demanding with intent to gain money, property or any other benefit from, or with intent to cause detriment to, another person accompanied by the use of coercive measures, to be carried out at some point in the future if the demand is not met. This may also include the use and/ or threatened use of face-to-face force or violence, provided there is a threat of continued violence if the demand is not met. Coercive measures include, but are not limited to: the threat of force or violence; the misuse of authority; criminal prosecution; the destruction of a person's reputation or social standing; or the destruction of a person's property.

Dangerous or negligent acts which, though not intended to cause harm, actually or potentially result in injury to oneself or another person.

The official measure of the population of Australia is based on the concept of residence. It refers to all people, regardless of nationality or citizenship, who usually live in Australia, with the exception of foreign diplomatic personnel and their families. It includes usual residents who are overseas for less than 12 months. It excludes overseas visitors who are in Australia for less than 12 months.

Any verbal and/or physical threat to inflict physical harm, made face-to-face, where the person being threatened believed the threat was likely and able to be carried out. Excludes any incident where the person being threatened did not encounter the offender in person (e.g. threats made via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media).

Offences involving a dishonest act or omission carried out with the purpose of deceiving to obtain a benefit.

The unlawful killing, attempted unlawful killing or conspiracy to kill another person. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Murder, Attempted murder and Manslaughter and driving causing death.

The possession, sale, dealing or trafficking, importing or exporting, manufacture or cultivation of drugs or other substances prohibited under legislation. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Import or export illicit drugs, Deal or traffic in illicit drugs, Manufacture or cultivate illicit drugs, Possess and/or use illicit drugs and Other illicit drug offences.

Imprisonment rates are expressed as the number of persons in prison per 100,000 adult population. Imprisonment rates enable comparison of different prisoner populations based on age, sex, Indigenous status, country of birth, and state and territory.

In the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, an intimate partner is a current partner (husband/wife/defacto), previous partner (husband/wife/defacto), boyfriend/girlfriend/ex-boyfriend/ex-girlfriend, or date, and a family member is a parent, child, sibling or other family member.

The unlawful confinement of a person against that person's will, or against the will of any parent, guardian or other person having lawful custody or care of that person.

The unlawful killing of another person while deprived of the power of self-control by provocation, or under circumstances amounting to diminished responsibility or without intent to kill, as a result of a careless, reckless, negligent, unlawful or dangerous act (other than the act of driving).

The sum of the value of each observation in a distribution divided by the number of observations. Known as the arithmetic average.

The middle value of a set of values when the values are sorted in order.

Offences involving the breach of statutory rules or regulations governing activities that are prima facie legal (i.e. legal on first appearance), where such offences are not explicitly dealt with under any other Division of ANZSOC, including: defamation, libel and privacy offences; public health and safety offences; commercial/industry/financial regulations; and other miscellaneous offences.

For sentenced prisoners, the most serious offence is the offence for which the prisoner has received the longest sentence in the current episode for a single count of the offence, except for Tasmania.

The unlawful killing of another person where there is either the intent to kill; the intent to cause grievous bodily harm, with the knowledge that it was probable that death or grievous bodily harm would occur (reckless indifference to life); or without intent to kill in the course of committing a crime (felony murder).

The National Offence Index (NOI) is a ranking of the ANZSOC codes from most serious to least serious, and is used to determine a principal offence where a person is proceeded against for more than one offence type during the reference period. Offences are allocated a ranking and the highest ranking offence (i.e. the offence closest to 1) is selected as the principal offence. For further details, see the Methodology tab in Prisoners in Australia, 2019 (cat. no. 4517.0). For further detail refer to National Offence Index (cat. no. 1234.0.55.001).

An annual census of all persons in the legal custody of adult corrective services in all states and territories as at midnight 30 June. Statistics in Prisoners in Australia, 2019 (cat. no. 4517.0) are derived from information on each prisoner collected by the ABS from administrative records held by corrective services agencies within each state and territory.

Any threat to inflict physical harm where the person being threatened believed the threat was likely and able to be carried out, and where the victim did not encounter the offender face-to-face (e.g. via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media).

People who did not identify themselves, or were not identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin.

Any act or omission by a person, persons, organisation, or organisations, for which a penalty could be imposed by the Australian legal system.

An act or omission that is deemed to be prejudicial to the effective carrying out of justice procedures or any government operations. This includes general government operations as well as those specifically concerned with maintaining government security.

A person aged 10 years or over who is proceeded against and recorded by police for one or more criminal offences. An offender is only counted once during the reference period irrespective of the number of offences committed or the number of separate occasions that police proceeded against that offender.

Offender rates are expressed as the number of offenders per 100,000 of the relevant Estimated Resident Population (ERP).

Where the victim and the offender are married, in a de facto relationship or where the offender is the victim's boyfriend or girlfriend.

An act of physical force or violence committed by an offender/s against another person. Examples of physical force or violence include being beaten, pushed, grabbed, shoved, slapped, hit with an open hand or fist, kicked, bitten, choked, stabbed, shot, burnt, being hit with something such as a bat or being dragged or hit deliberately by a vehicle. Includes assault that occurred while the person was at work. Excludes incidents that occurred during the course of play on a sporting field or organised sport, verbal abuse, incidents where the person did not encounter the offender face-to-face, and incidents of sexual assault or threatened sexual assault which also involved physical assault.

In the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, this refers to any incident where a person was physically hurt or harmed by someone on purpose, including physical fights. Other forms of abuse (e.g. sexual, emotional, psychological) are excluded.

A verbal, written and/or physical threat to inflict physical harm where the person being threatened believed the threat was likely and able to be carried out. Threatened assault may occur face-to-face or via non face-to-face methods (such as SMS, email or over the phone). Includes any threat or attempt to strike the person which could cause pain; situations where a gun or other weapon was left in an obvious place (including fake or toy guns/weapons where the threatened person thought it was real) or if the person knew the perpetrator had access to a gun (including toy guns, starter pistol, etc.). Also includes incidents where the person was threatened in their line of work. Excludes any incident of name calling or swearing which did not involve a physical threat, and threats that resulted in an actual assault.

Personal Safety, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0) includes threats made face-to-face and Crime Victimisation, Australia, 2018–19 (cat. no. 4530.0) includes both face-to-face and non face-to-face threatened assault.

Face- to- face threatened assault excludes any incident where the person being threatened did not encounter the offender in person (e.g. threats made via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media). Non face-to-face threatened assault may occur via telephone, text message, e-mail, in writing or through social media.

The occurrence, attempt or threat of physical assault experienced by a person since the age of 15. For further information, refer to the Violence Prevalence and Violence - Most Recent Incident pages in the Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0.55.003).

The offence category, based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC), 2011(cat. no. 1234.0), which describes the most serious offence type for which a person has been proceeded against by police during the reference period. The principal offence is determined by the rankings in the NOI (see National Offence Index).

A person held in custody. For the purposes of this domain, prisoners are those whose confinement is the responsibility of a corrective services agency.

Offences involving prohibited or regulated weapons and explosives. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Prohibited weapons/explosives offences and Regulated weapons/explosives offences.

The wilful and unlawful destruction, damage or defacement of public or private property, or the pollution of property or a definable entity held in common by the community. 'Destruction' means altering the property in any way so as to render it imperfect or inoperative. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Property damage and Environmental pollution.

Offences involving personal conduct that involves, or may lead to, a breach of public order or decency, or that is indicative of criminal intent, or that is otherwise regulated or prohibited on moral or ethical grounds. In general, these offences do not involve a specific victim or victims; however, some offences, such as offensive language and offensive behaviour, may be directed towards a single victim.

Data are compiled on the basis of the date an offence is reported to police and recorded within the reference period. This corresponds to either the date the offence was reported to police by a member of the public or when it was detected by police, and was recorded on police systems. The report date may not necessarily be the date when the offence occurred. This is particularly the case for Homicide and related offences and Sexual assault, where in some instances there may be a large time difference between when the offence(s) occurred and the report/detection date.

In the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, people who had experienced physical harm or face-to-face threatened physical harm in the last 12 months were asked to identify:

• the offender(s) of the most recent incident
• the offender(s) related to all incidents within the last 12 months.

People may have experienced physical harm or face-to-face threatened physical harm by more than one offender in the previous 12 months. An offender may have been an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person or a non-Indigenous person.

The total number of persons/households that reported the most recent incident of a crime type to police, expressed as a percentage of the total number of persons/households that experienced the crime type. Includes incidents where the person who experienced the crime did not report the incident themselves, but were aware of another person who did.

Recorded Crime - Victims, Australia, 2019 (cat. no. 4510.0) defines robbery as the unlawful taking of property, with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property, from the immediate possession, control, custody or care of a person or organisation, accompanied by the use, and/or threatened use, of immediate force or violence. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Armed Robbery and Unarmed Robbery.

Recorded Crime – Offenders, 2018–19 (cat. no 4519.0) defines robbery, extortion and related offences as acts intended to unlawfully gain money, property or other thing of value from, or to cause detriment to, another person by using the threat of force or any other coercive measure. This offence is divided into the subcategories of Robbery and Blackmail and extortion.

Sentenced prisoners are those persons who have received a term of imprisonment from a court. This includes offenders who have been given an indeterminate sentence or custodial order, for example persons detained under the 'Governor's/ HM's Pleasure' and 'Forensic Patients', or those who have received a life sentence. Prior to 2017, periodic detainees in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory were also included.

An act of a sexual nature carried out against a person's will, through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion. It includes attempts to force a person into sexual activity.

The attempts are not separately identified in the Personal Safety, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0). It includes rape, attempted rape, aggravated sexual assault (assault with a weapon), indecent assault, penetration by objects and forced sexual activity that did not end in penetration and attempts to force a person into sexual activity. Incidents so defined would be an offence under state and territory criminal law.

Sexual assault excludes incidents of violence that occurred before the age of 15 - these are defined as sexual abuse. It also excludes unwanted sexual touching - this is defined as sexual harassment. If a person experienced sexual assault and sexual threat in the same incident, this was counted once only as a sexual assault. If an incident of sexual assault also involved physical assault or threats, this was counted once only as a sexual assault.

Recorded Crime - Victims, 2019 (cat. no. 4510.0) and Recorded Crime – Offenders, 2018–19 (cat. no 4519.0) defines sexual assault as physical contact, or intent of contact, of a sexual nature directed toward another person where that person does not give consent, gives consent as a result of intimidation or deception, or consent is proscribed (i.e. the person is legally deemed incapable of giving consent because of youth, temporary/permanent (mental) incapacity or there is a familial relationship).

Acts, or intent of acts, of a sexual nature against another person, which are non-consensual or where consent is proscribed. This offence is divided into subdivisions of Sexual assault and Non-assaultive sexual offences.

The Personal Safety Survey collects information about a person’s experience of selected types of sexual harassment behaviours only. These include indecent phone calls; indecent texts, emails or posts; indecent exposure; inappropriate comments; unwanted touching, grabbing, kissing or fondling; distributing or posting pictures or videos of the person, that were sexual in nature, without their consent; and exposure to pictures, videos or materials which were sexual in nature that the person did not wish to see. Definitions for each behaviour can be found under 'Sexual harassment' in the glossary for the Personal Safety, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0).

NB Comparisons between the data collected for sexual harassment in Personal Safety, Australia, 2005 (Reissue) (cat. no. 4906.0) and Personal Safety, Australia, 2012 (cat. no. 4906.0) cannot be made. The 2012 survey included instances where the sexual harassment behaviours experienced by the respondent were found to be improper or offensive due to their sexual nature. The 2005 survey, in contrast, determined whether respondents had ever experienced the sexual harassment behaviours but did not ask whether the respondent found the behaviours to be improper or offensive due to their sexual nature. An additional type of sexual harassment behaviour (an indecent text, email or post) was also added to the 2012 measure of sexual harassment in order to capture emerging methods of sexual harassment. These changes were considered necessary for the 2012 Personal Safety Survey (PSS), but this has resulted in a significant change to the definition of sexual harassment and means that the data are no longer comparable between the two surveys.

The threat of acts of a sexual nature that were made face-to-face where the person believed it was able to and likely to be carried out. If a person experienced sexual assault and sexual threat in the same incident, this was counted once only as a sexual assault.

The occurrence, attempt or threat of sexual assault experienced by a person since the age of 15. For further information, refer to the Violence Prevalence and Violence - Most Recent Incident pages in the Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0.55.003).

Stalking involves various behaviours, such as loitering and following, which the person believed were being undertaken with the intent to cause them fear or distress. To be classified as stalking more than one type of behaviour had to occur, or the same type of behaviour had to occur on more than one occasion. Behaviours include:

• loitered or hung around outside person's home
• loitered or hung around outside person's workplace
• loitered or hung around outside person's place of leisure or social activities
• followed or watched them in person
• followed or watched them using electronic tracking device (e.g. GPS tracking system, computer spyware)
• maintained unwanted contact with them by phone, postal mail, email, text messages or social media websites
• posted offensive or unwanted messages, images or personal information on the internet about them
• impersonated them online to damage their reputation
• hacked or accessed their email, social media or other online account without their consent to follow or track them
• gave or left objects where they could be found that were offensive or disturbing
• interfered with or damaged any of their property.

For further information, refer to the Stalking page in the Personal Safety Survey, Australia: User Guide, 2016 (cat. no. 4906.0.55.003).

The unlawful taking or obtaining of money or goods not involving the use of force, threat of force or violence, coercion or deception, with the intent to permanently or temporarily deprive the owner or possessor of the use of the money or goods, or the receiving or handling of money or goods obtained unlawfully.

See 'Physical threat, threatened physical assault '.

In the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, this refers to threats of physical harm that occurred either face-to-face or non-face-to-face (e.g. via instant message/social networking sites, text message, phone, email, writing.

The unlawful entry of a structure with the intent to commit an offence where the entry is either forced or unforced.

A person or household who has experienced at least one incident of a selected type of crime within 12 months prior to the interview. A victim may experience more than one incident of a type of crime, but is only counted once for each type of crime experienced.

The total number of persons/households that experienced a crime type, expressed as a percentage of all persons/households. This is a measure of how prevalent a crime type is in a given population.

Any incident involving the occurrence, attempt or threat of either sexual or physical assault. Violence can be broken down into two main categories, sexual violence and physical violence.

People who identified themselves, or were identified by another household member, as being of Aboriginal origin, Torres Strait Islander origin, or both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander origin.

Australian Government departments and agencies where staff members are employed under the Public Service Act 1999. The APS provides the support needed to undertake the Australian Government's roles and responsibilities on behalf of the Australian people. It achieves this by providing policy advice and managing and facilitating the delivery of programs, regulations, information and services agreed by the Government.

The Government's pre-eminent policy-making body, consisting of senior ministers and presided over by the Prime Minister. Major policy and legislative proposals are decided by the Cabinet.

The CEO or head of business in Australia is intended to refer to the highest ranking corporate officer (executive) or an administrator in charge of management of an organisation. The CEO may be known under different titles, for example, vice chancellor, managing director, general manager, managing partner or principal.

In 2019, people were asked if they were actively involved in a civic or political group in the last 12 months.

For years before 2019, people were asked if they were actively involved in a civic or political group, or taken part in an activity they organised, in the last 12 months.

Examples of civic or political groups include: 

• trade union, professional/technical association 
• political party 
• civic group or organisation 
• environmental or animal welfare group 
• human and civil rights group 
• body corporate or tenants' association 
• consumer organisation 
• other civic or political organisation.

Involvement in activities that are directed at providing assistance to other individuals, groups and the wider community.

In 2019, people were asked if they were actively involved in a community support group in the last 12 months.

For years before 2019, people were asked if they were actively involved in a community support group, or taken part in an activity they organised, in the last 12 months.

Examples of community support groups include:

• service clubs
• welfare organisations
• education and training
• parenting / children / youth
• health promotion and support
• emergency services
• international aid and development
• other community support groups.

An independent advisory body, including representatives of every state and territory, public office holders (ex-officio) and community representatives, that considers all nominations for appointments and awards in the General Division of the Order of Australia. The Council consists of 19 members from across Australia who are appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The Council meets twice yearly to consider all nominations and make recommendations to the Governor-General on who should receive awards in the Order of Australia, as well as the level of award.

Executive Level (EL) managers in the Australian Public Service are made up of two levels:

• Executive Level 1 employees generally undertake work that is very complex or sensitive and operate under broad direction. They exercise a considerable degree of independence and perform a leadership role.
• Executive Level 2 employees are required to undertake work with a high level of complexity or sensitivity and operate under broad direction. They exercise a significant degree of independence and perform an important leadership role.

Reference period is as at 1 January in each year. These figures are calculated according to the current number of parliamentarians, and do not include vacant seats.

A governing body is defined as the board of directors, trustees, committee of management, council or other governing authority of the employer. This includes voluntary boards of not-for-profit organisations. A governing board/body can be one person (e.g. sole director) or more.

The House of Representatives is one of the two houses of the Australian Federal Parliament, the other being the Senate. It is sometimes referred to as the 'people's house', the 'house of government' or the 'lower house'. The House has 150 members and each member represents an electoral division. Members are elected by a system known as preferential voting, under which voters rank candidates in order of preference. Each House of Representatives may continue for up to three years, after which general elections must be held.

An industry is a group of businesses or organisations that undertake similar economic activities to produce goods and services. Industry is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006, (Revision 2.0) (cat. no. 1292.0).

Key management personnel are persons who have authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activities of the entity, directly or indirectly, including any director (whether executive or otherwise) of that entity, in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards Board AASB124. A defining feature of KMPs is that their influence is at the entity level. They participate in organisation-wide decisions with the CEO. They are likely to be functional heads such as head of operations or head of finance and direct how that component contributes to the entity’s outcome, with a strategic focus.

Includes any employer that is a natural person, or a body or association (whether incorporated or not) that is not part of the public sector/government, be that federal, state, territory (including state/territory owned organisations/ enterprises), local or an authority. For example, non-public sector employers include higher education institutions, privately or publicly listed enterprises/companies, religious entities, schools or medical institutions that are not government owned, clubs, unions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO's).

Other executives/general managers hold primary responsibility for the equivalent of a department or a business unit. In a large organisation, this manager might not participate in organisation-wide decisions with the CEO. Alternatively, this manager could have influence in organisation-wide decision-making forums to provide expertise or project development but because they do not actually hold authority at an entity level they would not be defined as a KMP.

The highest recognition for outstanding achievement and service to the nation or humanity. There are two divisions of the Order of Australia: the General (or Civil) Division and the Military Division. Each Division has the following four levels:

• Companion of the Order (AC) - Australia's greatest civic honour, awarded for eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or humanity at large
• Officer of the Order (AO) - awarded for distinguished service of a high degree to Australia or humanity at large
• Member of the Order (AM) - awarded for service in a particular locality or field of activity or to a particular group
• Medal of the Order (OAM) - awarded for service worthy of particular recognition.

Nominations for the General Division come directly from the community, which are then considered by the Council for the Order of Australia. In assessing a nomination, the Council seeks to satisfy that the nominee has:

• demonstrated achievement at a high level
• made a contribution over and above what might be reasonably expected through paid employment or
• whose voluntary contribution to the community stands out from others who have also made a valuable contribution.

The Council makes recommendations direct to the Governor-General, including the level of award. The Governor-General also makes appointments to the Military Division of the Order of Australia on the recommendation of the Minister for Defence.

Appointments to the Order of Australia are publicly announced on Australia Day (26 January) and the Queen's Birthday public holiday (June).

A member of parliament.

Not all boards and positions are in scope for gender balance reporting. The scope of reporting is clearly outlined as an appendix in each gender balance report published on the Office for Women website at https://www.pmc.gov.au/office-women/leadership/gender-balance-australian-government-boards.

The Senate is one of the two houses of the Australian Federal Parliament. It is sometimes referred to as the 'upper house'. It consists of 76 senators, 12 from each of the six states and two from each of the mainland territories. It shares the power to make laws with the other house of the Parliament, the House of Representatives. The Senate is elected by proportional representation, so that its composition closely reflects the voting pattern of the electors.

SES managers provide strategic leadership at both agency and whole of Australian Public Service (APS) level.

Under the Workplace Gender Equality Agency Act, 2012, all non-public sector employers with 100 or more employees in Australia for any six months or more of a reporting period are required to report on their gender composition. The six months do not have to be consecutive months. All employees (headcount, not full-time equivalent) should be counted. This includes full-time, part-time, casual, contract and temporary employees of the employer (including all of its subsidiaries employing employees in Australia). For employers that are part of a corporate group, the 100 or more employees’ threshold applies to the combined total of employees of the parent entity and all subsidiaries in Australia. If a relevant employer has previously reported and its number of employees falls below 100, it must continue to report until the total number of employees across all entities within its corporate structure falls below 80 for six months or more of the particular reporting period.

Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between the sums of the component items and totals.

Unless otherwise stated, where source data used included a non-response category (i.e. not stated), data in this category have been excluded prior to the calculation of percentages. Total numbers shown with such percentages include the number of non-responses.