Australia's regions cover many diverse cities, suburbs, towns, rural and remote areas - and the
ABS provides information about over 3000 regions from the Census of Population of Housing
and from other sources, through its Data By Region portal.
The ABS are in the midst of a major transformation in the way we provide statistical
information, with many more data sources becoming available that can tell us what is happening
in Australia's regions. How can we make best use of all our data sources to provide the best
possible regional statistics for Australia? What are the most important regional information
requirements?
Why is regional data needed?
Governments, businesses and communities require information for making important place
based decisions, such as:
1. Regional economic development - planning for local jobs and economic growth, or
managing decline or change in the structure of local economies
2. Service planning for locations - planning infrastructure, transport, housing, health,
education, recreation, culture and many other services
3. Business location planning - most businesses use small area data to understand their
consumer markets, labour markets and decide business locations
4. Addressing locational disadvantage - policy interventions or service delivery dealing with
significant multiple disadvantage in locations
5. Liveability of places - developing the quality of life and liveability of places for residents,
workers and visitors; as well as to attract investment
6. Local community resilience – supporting the ability of local residents and businesses to
adapt to environmental disaster or economic shock or downturn
7. Local community wellbeing - promoting healthy and socially active communities
8. Local social cohesion – supporting positive community interaction and civic participation
across diverse and changing communities, while preventing social disorder
What kinds of regional information are needed?
Underpinning place based decisions, the information requirements usually relate to:
Who is here?
We know there are a multitude of different data sets that describe people within a region, what we need to find
out is what data is the most useful. What data can be used to best organise service delivery or policy outcomes?
What is here?
A region is often defined by what is located within it – a simple statement, but prioritising data to give the best
answer to ‘what is here?’ is a complex one.
How do people and businesses inter-relate across regions?
People and businesses participate in a complex interplay of global and local connections. Information is needed
to describe the important local connections within or between nearby regions or cities within Australia. Ideally, it
would be useful to know how significant these local connections are, set against international, inter-state or other
‘virtual’ connections.
What value or benefit do people or businesses derive from places?
Many people and businesses gravitate towards regions that best fit their needs or wants. Why do people live
where they live? Why do businesses locate themselves where they are? What are the push and pull factors that
drive people's decisions about place?
What will this place be like in the future?
Having an understanding of how a region is changing is often a fundamental requirement for the people living in it
and the organisations that service it. Governments, businesses and communities cannot simply plan for the
‘now’, they need reliable and cost-efficient projections for planning purposes to assist in the correct allocation of
finite resources.
Who is here?
It is a fundamental requirement to understand the size of a region’s population and the
characteristics of the people who live or work there. We know there are a multitude of different
datasets that describe people and their activities within a region. What population characteristics
are the most useful to understand? And why?
Resident population
The resident population is clearly vital information for understanding who lives in a region. Basic
demographics details provided with population counts include an age/sex breakdown, number
of births and number of deaths.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
Communities need to understand the characteristics of their local Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander populations, in order to build healthy cohesive communities and progress Australia’s
reconciliation aims. Information about population counts, by age/ sex are important, along with
many other characteristics listed here – including labour force characteristics, health and
education outcomes.
Labour Force
Information about the employment characteristics of people who live or work in a region is
important for service delivery, program and policy evaluation and for understanding a region's
economy. Labour force data include - the size of the labour force, the unemployment rate, total
employment (and participation rate), under or over-employment, type of occupation and
industry of employment. Other issues that are of interest are the age of the workforce, hours of
work and working conditions.
Health
Health is an important aspect of a person's wellbeing, and spending on health is also one of the
largest government expenditures. Regional health data can include indicators such as prevalence
of health conditions and disability in the population. Information is needed about how health
services are being accessed and where from (i.e. locally or through travel to other regions or
cities). There is also interest in health risk factors such as the level of physical activity, diet,
smoking prevalence and other data items that assist in building up the health profile of people in
a region.
Skills and Education
Education and training can not only benefit the individual, but a skilled workforce may open up
opportunities for businesses and communities to leverage such skills. Relevant data may include
the number of people enrolled in study, the number of graduates, the types of courses or degrees
completed and the method of delivery. Information about the “skills” of a population are harder
to measure compared to education qualifications, but are also relevant. It should be remembered
that skills are often acquired through work rather than through training and the skills or talents
of the people who live in a place are an important resource for communities.
Community Diversity
Understanding the cultural backgrounds of the people in a region is important for a region’s
sense of identity and cohesion, as well as for developing services and businesses that can benefit
from the skills and values contributed by people from diverse cultures. Information
requirements include: country of birth of persons, country of birth of parents, ancestry, English
as a second language, languages spoken, migrants, visa status and religion.
What is here?
A region is often defined by what is located within it – a simple statement but prioritising data to
give the best answer to ‘what is here?’ can be complex.
Infrastructure
Data regarding new town/city developments, transport projects and local amenities continue to
be highlighted by regional data users as being useful for decision making and analysis. Key
“public” infrastructure includes most roads, ports, railways, airports, recreation parks,
community facilities, walking trails, footpaths, water and power assets, drainage assets, etc. While
infrastructure are the facilities and physical structures within a region, understanding the use of
these items and where there is a shortage or excess capacity is also important for policy makers
to understand.
Housing
Shelter is a basic human need, however housing data and its use is anything but basic. Data
about housing can include the type of stock, the levels of development or demolition, the spread
of suburbs and change in density. Ownership structures such as owner-occupier, investor or
renter all add to the value of housing analysis. Information about residential occupancy rates and
over-crowding are of interest and of particular note is the growing interest in housing
affordability.
Businesses
One of the most important influences on a region's economy is the economic health of
businesses operating within the region. A suite of regional business data could include indicators
such as counts of businesses (by industry), and their churn (business entries, business exits and
business numbers), turnover, total profit and total employment by businesses within a region.
Going further, data around entrepreneurial activity, the type and amount of innovation that
businesses are undertaking and their ability to adapt are also being sought.
Land Use
A region is often defined by the predominant uses of the land where it is situated. The type of
land use will dictate the service delivery and activities that happen within that region. Land use is
more than just knowing if land is residential, commercial, industrial or agricultural - regional data
users are demanding finer details of land use data for planning and projections such as
developments and environmental issues. Land value is also useful data in economic analyses for
regions.
Service Access
The accessibility of services is a significant issue for many Australians. Regional data users have
a need to understand the types of services available, the distance people are from services and
the ease with which they can be accessed.
How do people and businesses inter-relate across regions?
People and businesses participate in a complex interplay of global and local connections.
Information is needed to describe the important local connections within or between nearby
regions or cities within Australia. Ideally, it would be useful to know how significant these local
connections are, set against international, inter-state or other ‘virtual’ connections.
Population Flows
There is a high level of interest in the movements of people into and out of various regions
(however defined), and these may be permanent moves (change of residential address) or
temporary moves (visitors, tourists, shoppers, workers, etc.). This is an important consideration
for program, policy and service delivery. For example, within cities there is interest in temporary
moves of daily commuters, whereas in many towns and coastal areas, seasonal tourist
populations are of interest. Long distance commuters (such as fly-in fly-out workers) are another
kind of population flow that is of interest.
Service catchments
Almost universally regions do not function without external interaction with other regions.
Many regions develop symbiotic infrastructure and skills sets, for example a region may have
health facilities that service surrounding regions. Other regions may have businesses that serve as
workplaces or as a retail hub for the residents of other regions. Understanding the relationship
between regions is vital in understanding how they operate, what they contribute and what they
are missing.
Business Supply Chains
Regions are seldom entirely self-sufficient, they rely on external inputs to be able to function.
Likewise, businesses in regions consume goods and services from other regions, as part of their
process of production. An efficient business supply chain can be the difference between
flourishing or shrinking business activity within many regions. Most regional information about
supply chains exist as local anecdotal intelligence and it is not clear, yet, how data may assist.
Transport Corridors
Transport corridors are typically defined by major roads, rail, ports and/or airports where large
movements of often large numbers of people occur. There is interest in identifying the major
transport corridors and gathering data on their use.
Public Transport
Public transport continues to be a topic that has strong community interest, as it supports
commuters, students, elderly and others in cities and regional centres. Transport service
providers are progressively gaining better data about their own customers which assists with
service planning and delivery. There is potentially a wealth of data about public transport that
could be useful for a coordinated approach to planning and delivery of public transport services.
What value or benefit do people or businesses derive from places?
Many people and businesses seem to gravitate towards regions that best fit their needs or wants.
Why do people live where they live? Why do businesses locate themselves where they are? A
common analysis looks at how people or businesses cluster together and why?
Socio-economic advantage and disadvantage
It is well established that some places have greater prevalence of advantage or disadvantage when
compared to other places. The ABS produces a measure of relative advantage and disadvantage,
based on Census information which is widely used. What is it about a place or the people who
live there that determines the levels of advantage or disadvantage? Gaining an understanding of
how people in places are “disadvantaged” can assist in developing local interventions to improve
their circumstances.
Social Cohesion
A large aspect of an individual’s quality of life involves the ways in which that individual is able
to be supported and integrated into the community they live in. What do we need to know to
measure social cohesion? Some relevant indicators have been developed in surveys, such as the
Scanlon Report, and the ABS General Social Survey. Questions we can ask are how often do
people connect socially, with family, friends or the community, in a place? What benefits do
people gain from these local connections? How do communities group together in a location to
support each other and generate cohesive communities? Where are the issues within
communities that are showing signs of a lack of cohesion and how can this be addressed?
Social Participation and Volunteering
Volunteering is seen as a positive contribution to the community. Volunteering at a regional level
can have profound positive effects on that region. Volunteers can contribute to the amenity and
liveability of a place and can assist regions to recover from natural disaster or economic shock.
Information about volunteering is currently collected on the Census of Population and Housing,
and on the General Social Survey.
Business output
Users have consistently asked about aggregate measures of economic activity in a region, which
may be assessed by estimating Gross Regional Product. The ability to compare the size of a
region’s economy and its growth or decline is seen as useful information for many stakeholders.
Measuring an economy can be complex and imprecise and is particularly challenging for regions
which are highly interdependent. What information is needed to improve estimates of GRP, if
these are required? What region scale should be used to output meaningful estimates of GRP?
Business Innovation
In a rapidly changing global economy, often the ability of a business to thrive is linked to their
ability to innovate. What innovation catalysts does the region provide to its businesses? What
innovation is being undertaken by businesses? What investment do local businesses make in
research and development activity?
Income and Wealth
The aggregate income and wealth of people can be used as an important local economic
indicator for the region as a whole, as well as being an indicator of the economic wellbeing of the
population. Wealthy communities can contribute more to a place in terms of consumption,
compared to poorer communities. Higher wealth and income regions will be attractive to certain
businesses, whereas some businesses or service delivery agencies may need to target people from
lower socio-economic regions. Therefore data about the income and wealth of a region can be
very useful for a variety of sectors.
Amenity and Liveability
There are a number of liveability indicators (as shown in the Department of Infrastructure &
Regional Development – Chapter 5 State of the Cities Report) that are used to assess how
“liveable” places are, or how places provide for the quality of life for the population that live
there. Some examples include: How useful are these in terms of the data they use and what they
measure?
What will this place be like in future?
Understanding where a region is heading is often fundamental to the people living in it and the
organisations that service them. Governments, businesses and communities cannot simply plan
for the ‘now’. They need reliable projections for planning purposes to assist in the correct
allocation of finite resources into the future. Decisions about where to locate services or
infrastructure must anticipate future needs, as well as address current needs.
What regional information is needed to support the modelling of future economic and social
circumstances?
Predicting the future is not just a job for statisticians with predictive models. Local knowledge is
absolutely vital to developing a clear understanding of what the likely future “scenarios” are for
the future of a place. The local intelligence of people and businesses operating in the area may be
the most important data that is needed for developing future projections.
Demographic Projections
A population projection can be done as a straight line prediction based on assumptions derived
from historical data. However, the most difficult component to predict in population projections
is the “migration” component. At a regional scale, inter-regional population movements are
more volatile and subject to many factors operating at the local level (e.g. change in the
economy, or change in the environment). Many regional data users also need to know how the
characteristics of a population might change to best address service delivery for residents and to
understand the challenges and opportunities open to the region.
Economic Projections
What businesses are likely to grow or decline in a place in the future? How are businesses
planning to change their activity or products? What innovation is occurring in a region? Trying
to understand the future economic scenarios for a region is a challenging task that requires
extensive local knowledge as well as historical data. However, business surveys can ask relevant
questions about how businesses are planning to innovate, and about their planned developments.