Acts intended to cause injury – 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.
Age-specific crude divorce rates – the number of divorces recorded in a calendar year, by age at decree made absolute, to the married population of the same age at 30 June. Those classified as permanently separated are included in the married population. Males and females under 15 years are excluded from the population.
Age-specific death rates – The number of deaths (occurred or registered) during the calendar year at a specified age per 1,000 of the estimated resident population of the same age at 30 June.
Age-specific fertility rates – The number of live births (occurred or registered) during the calendar year, according to the age of the mother, per 1,000 of the female estimated resident population of the same age at 30 June.
Age-specific first marriage rates – The number of first time marriages of men or women registered in a calendar year, by age at marriage, per 1,000 never married population of men or women of the same age at 30 June. Men and women aged under 15 years are excluded from the population. Calculation of this rate requires a disaggregation of the population by marital status. Estimates of the population by marital status were last calculated as at 30 June 2001.
Age standardisation – Used to allow the comparison of populations with different age structures. A standard age composition is used to produce the age standardised estimate or proportion which would have prevailed at another point in time or other geographic area should the actual population have the standard age composition.
Alcohol consumption risk level – Self-reported average daily consumption of alcohol was grouped into relative risk levels as defined by the National Health and Medical Research Council as follows:
Alcohol consumption risk level
| |
Consumption per day |
| Risk level |
Men |
Women |
| Low |
50 mLs or less |
25 mLs or less |
| Risky |
More than 50 mLs, up to 75 mLs |
More than 25 mLs, up to 50 mLs |
| High risk |
More than 75 mLs |
More than 50 mLs |
Apparent retention rate – This is the number of school students in a designated level/year of education expressed as a percentage of their respective cohort group (which is either at the commencement of their secondary schooling or Year 10). Apparent retention rates are generally calculated for full-time students who continued to Year 12 of secondary school.
Apprentice – a person who has entered into a legal contract with an employer, to serve a period of training for the purpose of attaining tradesperson status in a recognised trade.
Arthritis – Arthri^tis is characterised by an inflammation of the joints often resulting in pain, stiffness, disability and deformity.
Assault – An incident, other than a robbery, where a person was threatened with force or violence or physically attacked.
Asthma – A chronic disease 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.
Average – the mean obtained by adding several quantities together and dividing the sum by the number of quantities.
Average weekly earnings – Average gross (before tax) earnings of employees and do not relate to average award rates nor to the earnings of the 'average person'. Estimates of average weekly earnings are derived by dividing estimates of weekly total earnings by estimates of number of employees.
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Body Mass Index (BMI) – Calculated from reported height and weight information, using the formula weight (kg) divided by the square of height (m). BMI values were grouped according to the following categories according to World Health Organization and National Health and Medical Research Council guidelines.
Body Mass Index (BMI)
| Category |
BMI |
| Underweight |
Less than 18.5 |
| Normal range |
18.5 to less than 20.0 20.0 to less than 25.0 |
| Overweight |
25.0 to less than 30.0 |
| Obese |
30.0 and greater |
Carer – A person of any age who provides any informal assistance, in terms of help or supervision, to people with disabilities or long term conditions, or to elderly people (i.e. aged 60 years and over). This assistance has to be ongoing, for at least six months. Assistance to a person in a different household relates to 'everyday types of activities', without specific information on the activities. Where the care recipient lives in the same household, the assistance is for one or more of the following activities:
- cognition or emotion
- communication
- health care
- housework
- meal preparation
- mobility
- paperwork
- property maintenance
- self care
- transport.
Cerebrovascular disease – Any disorder of the blood vessels supplying the brain or its covering membranes. A notable and major form of cerebrovascular disease is stroke.
Child – 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, and who does not have a child or partner of their own usually resident in the household. A child is also any individual under 15 years, usually resident in the household, who forms a parent-child relationship with another member in the household. This includes otherwise related children aged under 15 years and unrelated children aged under 15 years.
Completion – in Department of Education, Science and Training collections, the successful completion of all the academic requirements of a course which includes any required attendance, assignments, examinations, assessments, dissertations, practical experience and work experience in industry.
Couple family – A family based on two people who are in a registered or de facto marriage and who are usually resident in the same household. The family may include any number of dependents, non-dependents and other related individuals. It is not necessary for a parent-child relationship to be formed, thus a couple family can consist of a couple without children in the household.
Crude death rate – The number of deaths registered during a calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population of the same age at 30 June. For years prior to 1992, the crude death rate was based on the mean estimated resident population for the calendar year.
Crude divorce rate – The number of decrees absolute granted during the calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population at 30 June. For years prior to 1992, the crude divorce rate was based on the mean estimated resident population of the calendar year.
Crude marriage rate – The number of marriages registered during the calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population as at 30 June. For years prior to 1992, the crude marriage rate was based on the mean estimated resident population for the calendar year.
Current daily smoker – An adult who reported that they regularly smoked one or more cigarettes, cigars or pipes per day.
Data available on request – As well as the statistics included in its publications, the Australian Bureau of Statistics may have provided other relevant data.
De facto marriage – The relationship between two people who live together in a consensual union who are not registered as married to each other. A de facto marriage may exist between a couple of the opposite sex or of the same sex.
Diabetes mellitus – 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.
Domestic violence – Sometimes referred to as intimate partner violence, family violence, or relationship violence, refers to violence occurring between people who are, or were formerly, in an intimate relationship.
Employed – 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); or
- worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm (i.e. contributing family workers); 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; or
- were employers or own account workers, who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.
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Employed full-time – People who usually work 35 or more hours per week in all jobs and those who, although usually work less than 35 hours per week, worked 35 hours or more per week in the reference week.
Employed part-time – People who usually work less than 35 hours per week in all jobs and either did so during the reference week or were not at work during the reference week.
Estimated resident population – A measure of 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.
Exercise level – Based on frequency, intensity (i.e. walking, moderate exercise and vigorous exercise) and duration of exercise (for recreation, sport or fitness) in the two weeks prior to the survey. From these components, an exercise score was derived using factors to represent the intensity of the exercise. Scores were grouped into the following four categories:
Four categories of exercise
| Exercise level |
| Sedentary |
Less than 100 minutes (includes no exercise) |
| Low Exercise |
100 minutes to less than 1,600 minutes |
| Moderate Exercise |
1,600 minutes – 3,200 minutes, or more than 3,200 minutes but less than 2 hours of vigorous exercise |
| High Exercise |
More than 3,200 minutes and 2 hours or more of vigorous exercise |
Exnuptial births – Births where the mother was not registered as married at the time of the birth. Exnuptial births include those where the parents were living together in a de facto relationship at the time of the birth.
Family – 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.
First marriage rates – The number of men or women marrying for the first time during the calendar year, per 1,000 population of never married men or women aged 15 years and over at 30 June. Calculation of this rate requires a disaggregation of the population by marital status. Estimates of the population by marital status were last calculated as at 30 June 2001.
Group household – A household consisting of two or more unrelated people aged 15 years and over.
Health risk factors – Features or exposures that are associated with a greater risk of ill health in an individual.
Heart, stroke and vascular conditions – A subset of reported long-term conditions comprising angina and other ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, oedema and heart failure, and diseases of arteries, arterioles and capillaries.
Homicide and related offences – The unlawful killing, attempted unlawful killing or conspiracy to kill another person.
Household – A person living alone or a group of related or unrelated people who usually reside together and have common provision for food and other essentials of living.
Indigenous – People who identify themselves as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin.
Indigenous birth – The birth of a live-born child where either the mother or father was identified as being of Indigenous or Torres Strait Islander origin on the birth registration form.
Industry – An industry is a group of businesses or organisations that perform similar sets of activities in terms of the production of goods and services. Industry is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 1993 (ABS Cat. No. 1292.0). The industry assigned to an employed person is the industry of the organisation in which the person's main job is located. Unemployed people who had worked for two weeks or more in the last two years are classified according to the industry of their most recent job.
Intimate partner violence – Sometimes referred to as domestic violence, family violence, or relationship violence, refers to violence occurring between people who are, or were formerly, in an intimate relationship.
Involvement of alcohol or drugs – In the most recent incident of sexual assault, threatened sexual assault, physical assault and/or threatened or attempted physical assault. Alcohol or drugs were involved if the victim or the perpetrator were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident or if the person believed alcohol or drugs contributed to the incident, for example, when the perpetrator was recovering from a hangover or the victim believed that their drink had been spiked.
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Ischaemic heart disease – A disease of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle.
Labour force – For any group, people who were employed or unemployed.
Labour force participation rate – for any group, the number of people in the labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 and over in the same group.
Labour force status – A classification of the civilian population aged 15 years and over into employed, unemployed or not in the labour force.
Level of highest educational attainment – Refers to the highest achievement a person has attained in any area of study. It is not a measurement of the relative importance of different types of study but a ranking of qualifications and other educational attainments regardless of the particular area of study or the type of institution in which the study was undertaken.
Life expectancy at birth – the average number of years a person can expect to live according to the death rate as calculated at the time of birth.
Lone parent – Is a person with no spouse or partner present in the household but who has a parent-child relationship with at least one dependent or non-dependent child usually resident in the household.
Long term medical condition – A medical condition (illness, injury or disability) which has lasted at least six months or more. Some reported conditions were assumed to be long term, including asthma, arthritis, cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, rheumatic heart disease, heart disease, heart attack and stroke.
Managerial employees – Employees who are in charge of a significant number of employees and/or have strategic responsibilities in the conduct or operations of the organisation, and 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. Working proprietors and working directors of their own incorporated businesses are regarded as managerial employees.
Marital status – A person's social marital status refers to their current living arrangements, that is, whether or not they are living with another person in a couple relationship either in a registered marriage or a de facto marriage. A person's registered marital status refers to their status in relation to a legally registered marriage as either never married, currently married, separated, divorced or widowed. Some people who are not living with their partner may still report their marital status as currently registered married rather than separated.
Maternal death – The death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of the termination of the pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy, but not from accidental or incidental causes. A late maternal death is the death of a woman from direct or indirect obstetric causes more than 42 days but less than one year after termination of pregnancy.
Mean – The average value of a set of numbers.
Median – For any distribution the median value (age, interval, duration) is that value that divides the relevant population into two equal parts, half falling below the value and half exceeding it.
Neoplasm – A new growth of abnormal tissue (a tumour). Tumours can be either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Cancer refers to several diseases and can affect most types of cells in various parts of the body.
Net overseas migration – Net permanent and long-term overseas migration, plus an adjustment for the effect of differences in duration of stay or absence between initial stated intentions and actual behaviour.
Non-managerial employees – Employees who are not managerial employees (as defined above), including nonmanagerial professionals and some employees with supervisory responsibilities.
Not in the labour force – Persons who were not in the categories of employed or unemployed.
Occupation – An occupation is a collection of jobs that are sufficiently similar in their main tasks to be grouped together for the purpose of classification. Occupation is classified according to the ASCO Australian Standard Classification of Occupations, Second Edition (ABS Cat. No. 1220.0). The occupation assigned to an employed person relates to the person's main job. Unemployed people who had worked for two weeks or more in the last tow years are classified according to the occupation of their most recent job.
Ordinary time earnings – Refers to the earnings of employees for the reference period attributable to award, standard or agreed hours of work. It is calculated before taxation and any other deductions (e.g. superannuation, board and lodging) have been made. Included in ordinary time earnings are award, workplace and enterprise bargaining payments, and other agreed base rates of pay, over-award and over-agreed payments, penalty payments, shift and other allowances; commissions and retainers; bonuses and similar payments related to the reference period; payments under incentive or piecework; payments under profit sharing schemes normally paid each pay period; payment for leave taken during the reference period; all workers' compensation payments made through payroll; and salary payments made to directors. Excluded are overtime payments, retrospective pay, pay in advance, leave loading, severance, termination and redundancy payments, and other payments not related to the reference period.
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Part-time employment – working less than 35 hours a week.
Paternity acknowledged birth – A birth outside registered marriage where the father has acknowledged paternity on the birth certificate.
Physical assault – The use of physical force with the intent to harm or frighten a person. The assault may have occurred in conjunction with a robbery. It includes incidents where a person was assaulted in their line of work. It excludes incidents of sexual assault or threatened sexual assault which also involved physical assault, those which occurred before the age of 15 and those which occurred during the course of play on a sporting field. If a physical assault was preceded by a threat of the same type in the same incident, only the physical assault was recorded.
Physical threat, threatened physical assault – Verbal and/or physical intent or suggestion of intent to inflict physical harm, which the person believed was able and likely to be carried out. The threats must have been made face-to-face. It includes incidents where a person was threatened in their line of work. It excludes any act of violence which was actually carried out, incidents of sexual assault, threatened sexual assault or physical assault which also involved threatened or attempted physical assault, those which occurred before the age of 15, and those which occurred during the course of play on a sporting field.
Physical violence – An incident of physical assault, attempt or threat (as defined above).
Primary carer – Is a person of any age who provides the most informal assistance, in terms of help or supervision, to an elderly person and/or 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 of the core activities of self-care, mobility or communication.
Psychological distress – Derived from the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale – 10 items (K10). This is a scale of nonspecific psychological distress based on 10 questions about negative emotional states in the 4 weeks prior to the survey. The K10 is scored from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating a higher level of distress; low scores indicate a low level of distress. For the Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey, 2004–05, scores were grouped as follows:
Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Survey, 2004–05
| Level of psychological distress |
Score range |
| Low |
10–15 |
| Moderate |
16–21 |
| High |
22–29 |
| Very High |
30–50 |
Replacement level fertility – The number of babies a woman would need to have over her reproductive lifespan to replace herself and her partner. Given the current mortality of women up to 49 years, replacement fertility is estimated at around 2.1 babies per woman.
Registered marital status – Is a person's relationship status in terms of whether he or she has, or has had, a registered marriage with another person. Accordingly, people are classified as either 'never married', 'married', 'widowed', or 'divorced'.
Seasonally adjusted – Estimates with the estimated effects of normal seasonal variation removed.
Self-assessed health status – A person's general assessment of their own health against a five point scale from excellent through to poor.
Serve of fruit – A serve is approximately 150 grams of fresh fruit or 50 grams of dried fruit. The National Health and Medical Research Council has recommended a minimum of two serves of fruit per day for adults.
Serve of vegetables – A serve is approximately half a cup of cooked vegetables or one cup of salad vegetables – equivalent to approximately 75 grams. The National Health and Medical Research Council has recommended a minimum of five serves of vegetables per day for adults.
Sexual assault – 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. However, attempts are not separately identified. 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. It excludes unwanted sexual touching and incidents which occurred before the age of 15. Incidents so defined would be an offence under State and Territory criminal law.
Sexual threat, threatened sexual assault – The threat of acts of a sexual nature which are carried out against a person's will, through the use of physical force, intimidation or coercion. The person must have believed that the threats were able, and likely, to be carried out. It only includes threats that were made face-to-face and includes verbal threats, threats with a weapon and threats to harm children. It excludes if threats were made and then a sexual assault was carried out and incidents that occurred before the age of 15.
Sexual violence – Any incident of sexual assault or threat (as defined above).
Small business – business employing less than 20 people (excluding agricultural businesses).
Small business operator – The person or persons who own and run the business. Generally these business operators can be identified as:
- the proprietor of a sole proprietorship
- the partners of a partnership
- the working director(s) of an incorporated company.
Total fertility rate – the average number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime if she conformed to the current age-specific fertility rates throughout her life.
Trainee – Any person undertaking employment-based training under a contract of training.
Unemployed – 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.
Unpublished data – Other relevant data, not included in any publication, may have been obtained from a source institution.
Violence – Includes physical and sexual violence (as defined above).
Vocational education and training – post compulsory education and training, excluding degree and higher-level programs delivered by higher educational institutions, which provides people with occupational or work-related knowledge and skills. Vocational education and training also includes programs which provide the basis for subsequent vocational programs.
Volunteer – A person who willingly gave unpaid help, in the form of time, service or skills, through an organisation or group.
Volunteer rate – For any group, the volunteer rate is the number of volunteers in that group expressed as a percentage of the total population in the same group.