Glossary - NSW Commission for Children and Young People

Glossary and further information

Australian Bureau of Statistics Remoteness Area classification

The Australian Bureau of Statistics Remoteness Area classification is based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA). It contains six categories:

major cities
inner regional
outer regional
remote
very remote
migratory - composed of off-shore, shipping and migratory.

Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia

The Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia, developed by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care, has been widely adopted as a national standard for measuring remoteness in Australia. It defines five categories of remoteness based on distance by road to service centres:

highly accessible - relatively unrestricted accessibility to a wide range of goods and services and opportunities for social interaction
accessible - some restrictions to accessibility of some goods, services and opportunities for social interaction
moderately accessible - significantly restricted accessibility of goods, services and opportunities for social interaction
remote - very restricted accessibility of goods, services and opportunities for social interaction
very remote - very little accessibility of goods services and opportunities for social interaction.

Employed

The Australian Bureau of Statistics uses the term 'employed' to refer to persons who:

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), or
worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (that is contributing family workers), or
were employers or own account workers, who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work, or
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; or
- 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; or
- away from work as a standard work or shift arrangement; or
- on strike or locked out; or
- on workers' compensation and expected to return to their job.

Employed full-time

The Australian Bureau of Statistics uses the term 'employed full-time' to refer to persons who usually worked 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs).

Cause of death

The International Classification of Diseases, developed by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 1992), is the international standard diagnostic classification for mortality, including external causes of death. The Australian Modification (ICD-10AM) of the most recent version of this coding system is used by the NSW Child Death Review Team to code causes of death, which are maintained in the Child Death Register.

Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage

The Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage, developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, aggregates all postcode locations into three categories - high, medium and low socio-economic status. The Low is the average of the three lowest deciles, medium is the average of the four middle deciles and high is the average of the three highest deciles.

Priority Schools Funding Program

The Priority Schools Funding Program is run by the NSW Department of Education and Training. It provides additional support to socio-economically disadvantaged school communities to help improve their students' literacy and numeracy skills and participation. The schools in the program have high numbers of students from low socio-economic status backgrounds.

Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas Classification System

The Rural, Remote and Metropolitan Areas Classification System was developed by the Commonwealth Department of Primary Industries and Energy, and the then Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health. The classification is based on population numbers and an index of remoteness. It uses distance to larger towns and cities and from other people as the basis for its remoteness index. It contains up to seven categories:

capital cities
other metropolitan centres (urban centre population >100,000)
large rural centres (urban centre population 25,000-99,999 people)
small rural centres (urban centre population 10,000-24,000 people)
other rural centres (urban centre population <10,000 people)
remote centres (urban centre population >4,999 people)
other remote areas (urban centre population <5,000 people).

Socio-Economic Index For Area Classification

The Socio-Economic Index For Area Classification, developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, contains an index of relative socio-economic disadvantage. This index was derived from attributes such as income, educational attainment, unemployment and dwellings without motor vehicles. The classification is divided into quintiles, with the 1st quintile being least disadvantaged and the 5th quintile being most disadvantaged.

Australian Bureau of Statistics Copyright

© Commonwealth of Australia, used with permission. Requests and inquiries concerning the reproduction of ABS data should be addressed to The Manager, Intermediary Management, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Locked Bag 10 Belconnen ACT 2616 Australia, by telephone on 02 6252 6242 or via email to intermediary.management@abs.gov.au.

Website links

The following websites may be of interest if you want to explore these topics further.

Australian Bureau of Statistics - Children and Youth Statistics

Australian Clearinghouse for Youth Studies

Australian Institute of Criminology - Juvenile Justice

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Australian Institute of Family Studies

Australian Research Alliance for Children and Young people

Kids Safe

National Childcare Accreditation Council

NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research

NSW Child Health Survey

NSW Department of Community Services

NSW Department of Education and Training

NSW Department of Juvenile Justice

Productivity Commission