Geography - Boundaries & Insights - Australia

# Australian Geographic Insights: Boundaries and Statistics

Geography - Boundaries & Insights - Australia data listing includes data sets from several Australian organisations that have made their data freely available under Creative Commons licencing.

The following details the data providers and their data sets.

## Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

The Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) is a classification of Australia into a hierarchy of statistical areas. It is a social geography, developed to reflect the location of people and communities. It is used for the publication and analysis of official statistics and other data. The ASGS is updated every 5 years to account for growth and change in Australia’s population, economy and infrastructure.

ASGS Edition 3 was used for the 2021 Census of Population and Housing, and will be progressively introduced into other ABS data collections from 2022. ASGS Edition 3 is an update of ASGS Edition 2 (2016).

Mesh Blocks (MBs) are the smallest geographic areas defined by the ABS and form the building blocks for the larger regions of the ASGS. Most Mesh Blocks contain 30 to 60 dwellings.

Statistical Areas Level 1 (SA1s) are designed to maximise the geographic detail available for Census of Population and Housing data while maintaining confidentiality. Most SA1s have a population of between 200 to 800 people.

Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2s) are medium-sized general purpose areas built to represent communities that interact together socially and economically. Most SA2s have a population range of 3,000 to 25,000 people.

Statistical Areas Level 3 (SA3s) are designed for the output of regional data and most have populations between 30,000 and 130,000 people.

Statistical Areas Level 4 (SA4s) are designed for the output of a variety of regional data, and represent labour markets and the functional area of Australian capital cities. Most SA4s have a population of over 100,000 people.

**Schemas available:**

- GEOGRAPHY_AUS_FREE contains the Australian Bureau of Statistic's ASGS data for both GDA94 and GDA2020 datums

**Tables available:**

- ABS_MB_2021_AUST_GDA94:
- ABS_SA1_2021_AUST_GDA94:
- ABS_SA2_2021_AUST_GDA94:
- ABS_SA3_2021_AUST_GDA94:
- ABS_SA4_2021_AUST_GDA94:

- ABS_MB_2021_AUST_GDA2020:
- ABS_SA1_2021_AUST_GDA2020:
- ABS_SA2_2021_AUST_GDA2020:
- ABS_SA3_2021_AUST_GDA2020:
- ABS_SA4_2021_AUST_GDA2020:

Each table contains:

- GEOMETRY - the datum is part of the table name
- GCCSA_CODE_2021 - Greater Capital City Statistical Area Code
- GCCSA_NAME_2021 - Greater Capital City Statistical Area Name
- STATE_CODE_2021
- STATE_NAME_2021
- the code hierarchy for geography

Nomenclature<br/>Table names have the format <data type>*<2021>*<AUST>_<GDA> where:

<data type> represents the type of boundaries in each table<br/>MB = Mesh Block<br/>SA1 = Statistical Area Level 1<br/>SA2 = Statistical Area Level 2<br/>SA3 = Statistical Area Level 3<br/>SA4 = Statistical Area Level 4<br/>GCCSA = Greater Capital City Statistical Area<br/>STE = State and Territory<br/>AUS = Australia<br/><2021> represents 2021 the year of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3<br/><AUST> indicates the data covers all of Australia<br/><GDA> indicates the Geocentric Datum of Australia used, and may equal GDA94 or GDA2020