The Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) rank areas according to their relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage using 2021 Census data. This layer presents data by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2), 2021. SEIFA 2021 consists of four indexes: The Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) The Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) The Index of Education and Occupation (IEO) The Index of Economic Resources (IER) Each index summarises different subsets of 2021 Census variables and focuses on a different aspect of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.For detailed information on how to use the SEIFA data, please refer to the SEIFA 2021 Technical Paper.

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Data and geography references Source data publication: Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia Geographic boundary information: Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3 Further information: Census of Population and Housing: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia, Data downloads Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD)The Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD) summarises information about the economic and social conditions of people and households within an area. This index includes both relative advantage and disadvantage measures.A low score indicates relatively greater disadvantage and a lack of advantage in general. For example, an area could have a low score if there are: many households with low incomes, or many people in unskilled occupations, AND a few households with high incomes, or few people in skilled occupations.A high score indicates a relative lack of disadvantage and greater advantage in general. For example, an area may have a high score if there are: many households with high incomes, or many people in skilled occupations, AND few households with low incomes, or few people in unskilled occupations.IRSAD can be used:as a general measure of advantage and disadvantageto understand disadvantage, and advantageto offset advantage or disadvantage in their analysis.For example, IRSAD may be applicable when the topic being analysed is likely to be affected by both advantage and disadvantage.IRSAD is not recommended for:investigating disadvantage onlycomparing with data that is already included in IRSAD, such as areas with a high proportion of dwellings paying high levels of rent.Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD)The Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) is a general socio-economic index that summarises a range of information about the economic and social conditions of people and households within an area. IRSD only includes measures of relative disadvantage.A low score indicates relatively greater disadvantage. For example, an area could have a low score if there are: many households with low income, or many people without qualifications, and many people in low skilled occupations.A high score indicates a relative lack of disadvantage. For example, an area may have a high score if there are: few households with low incomes, few people without qualifications, few people in low skilled occupations.IRSD can be used:to understand an area's relative disadvantage and lack of disadvantageas a broad measure of disadvantage.For example, IRSD may be applicable when a user wants to allocate funds to disadvantaged areas.IRSD is not recommended for:investigating both advantage and disadvantagecomparing with data that is already included in IRSD, such as areas with a high proportion of households with low incomes.Index of Education and Occupation (IEO)The Index of Education and Occupation (IEO) reflects the educational and occupational level of communities. The education variables reflect educational attainment or if further education is being undertaken. The occupation variables are based on the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). It classifies the workforce into groups of occupations, skill levels and employment status. Unlike the other indexes IEO does not include any income variables.A low IEO score indicates relatively lower education and occupation levels of people in the area. For example, an area could have a low score if there are: many people without qualifications, or many people in low skilled occupations, or many people unemployed, AND few people with a high level of qualifications or in highly skilled occupations.A high score indicates relatively higher education and occupation status of people in the area in general. For example, an area could have a high score if there are: many people with higher education qualifications or many people in highly skilled occupations, AND few people without qualifications or few people in low skilled occupations.IEO can be used:to understand education and occupation variablesto understand the relationship between income, education, and employment. IEO is not recommended:for investigating disadvantage onlyas a broader measure of advantage and disadvantagefor comparing with data that is already included in IEO, such as unemployment.Index of Economic Resources (IER)The Index of Economic Resources (IER) focuses on the financial aspects of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage, by summarising variables related to income and housing. IER excludes education and occupation variables as they are not direct measures of economic resources. It also excludes assets such as savings or equities which, although relevant, cannot be included as they are not collected in the Census.A low score indicates a relative lack of access to economic resources. For example, an area may have a low score if there are: many households with low incomes, or many households paying low rent, AND few households with high income, or few people who own their home.A high score indicates relatively greater access to economic resources. For example, an area may have a high score if there are: many households with high income, or many people who own their home, AND few low-income households, or few households paying low rent.IER is recommended for understanding an area's access to economic resources (e.g. understanding housing as well as income).IER is not recommended:for investigating disadvantage only as this index measures both advantage and disadvantageas a general measure of advantage and disadvantagefor comparing with data that is already included in IER, such as household income.For more information, please visit: Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), Australia, 2021 | Australian Bureau of Statistics

The Index of Household Advantage and Disadvantage (IHAD) provides a summary measure of relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage for households, based on the characteristics of dwellings and the people living within them, using 2021 Census data.

All in-scope households are ordered from lowest to highest score. A low score indicates relatively greater disadvantage and a lack of advantage in general. A high score indicates a relative lack of disadvantage and greater advantage in general.

This dataset presents IHAD data in quartiles. The lowest 25% of households are given a quartile number of 1, the next lowest 25% of households are given a quartile number of 2 and so on, up to the highest 25% of households which are given a quartile number of 4. This means that households are divided into four equal sized groups, depending on their score. In practice these groups won’t each be exactly 25% of households as it depends on the distribution of the IHAD scores. The data is grouped by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2 2021). SA2s are defined by the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3.

Key Attributes:

      Field alias
      Field name
      Description


      Statistical Areas Level 2 2021 code
      SA2_CODE_2021
      2021 Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2) codes from the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), Edition 3. SA2s are medium-sized general purpose areas built to represent communities that interact together socially and economically. 


        Statistical Areas Level 2 2021 name
      SA2_NAME_2021
      2021 Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2) names from the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), Edition 3. SA2s are medium-sized general purpose areas built to represent communities that interact together socially and economically. 


      Area in square kilometres
      AREA_ALBERS_SQKM
      The area of a region in square kilometres, based on the Albers equal area conic projection.


      Uniform Resource Identifier
      ASGS_LOCI_URI_2021
      A uniform resource identifier can be used in web linked applications for data integration. 


      IHAD quartile 1
      IHAD_QUARTILE1
      Proportion of in-scope dwellings in the SA2 that fall into IHAD quartile 1, indicating relatively greater disadvantage and a lack of advantage in general.


      IHAD quartile 2
      IHAD_QUARTILE2
      Proportion of in-scope dwellings in the SA2 that fall into IHAD quartile 2.


      IHAD quartile 3
      IHAD_QUARTILE3
      Proportion of in-scope dwellings in the SA2 that fall into IHAD quartile 3.


      IHAD quartile 4
      IHAD_QUARTILE4
      Proportion of in-scope dwellings in the SA2 that fall into IHAD quartile 4, indicating a relative lack of disadvantage and greater advantage in general.


      Occupied private dwellings
      OPD_2021
      Dwellings in-scope of the IHAD i.e. classifiable occupied private dwellings.


      SEIFA IRSAD quartile
      IRSAD_QUARTILE
      Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage quartile. All SA2s are ordered from lowest to highest score, the lowest 25% of SA2s are given a quartile number of 1, the next lowest 25% of SA2s are given a quartile number of 2 and so on, up to the highest 25% of SA2s which are given a quartile number of 4. This means that SA2s are divided into four equal sized groups, depending on their score. In practice these groups won’t each be exactly 25% of SA2s as it depends on the distribution of SEIFA scores.


      Usual resident population
      URP_2021
      Population counts in this column are based on place of usual residence as reported on Census Night. These include persons out of scope of the IHAD.


      Dwellings
      DWELLING
      Total dwellings at Census time, including dwellings out of scope of the IHAD e.g. unoccupied private dwellings.

Please note: Proportional totals may equal more than 100% due to rounding and random adjustments made to the data. When calculating proportions, percentages, or ratios from cross-classified or small area tables, the random error introduced can be ignored except when very small cells are involved, in which case the impact on percentages and ratios can be significant. Refer to the Introduced random error / perturbation Census page on the ABS website for more information.

Data and geography references

Source data publication: Index of Household Advantage and Disadvantage Geographic boundary information: Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3 Further information: Index of Household Advantage and Disadvantage methodology, 2021 Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)

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Data source: ABSEPSG: 7855Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) is an ABS product that ranks areas in Australia according to relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage. The indexes are based on information from the five-yearly Census of Population and Housing.SEIFA 2016 has been created from Census 2016 data and consists of four indexes: The Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD); The Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage (IRSAD); The Index of Education and Occupation (IEO); The Index of Economic Resources (IER).Each index is a summary of a different subset of Census variables and focuses on a different aspect of socio-economic advantage and disadvantage.SEIFA indexes1.Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage / Disadvantage (IRSAD)A composite index where lower scores indicate more disadvantaged areas and higher scores indicate more advantaged areas.This index is constructed using a number of different variables that indicate both advantage (e.g., high income, having a degree qualification) and disadvantage (e.g., unemployment status, low income, number of bedrooms)2.Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD)Identifies areas with lower educational attainment, people in low-skilled occupations, low employment and other indicators of disadvantage.This index ranks areas from most disadvantaged to least disadvantaged3.Index of Economic Resources (IER)Includes variables such as rent paid, household income and mortgage payments4.Index of Education and Occupation (IEO)Includes education and occupation variablesSource: SEIFA