At .id, we are excited about the upcoming releases of 2016 Australian Census data #datanerds. To help you make the most out of the new data when it lands, we are putting together a series of blogs to guide you through the nuts and bolts of Census information. First up, we look at what the difference is between enumerated data, usual residence and estimated resident population to help you understand when to use each type of data.
So, what’s the difference between enumerated, usual residence and estimated resident population?
Here’s a quick description of each type of data:
- Enumerated data set – a count of where people were on Census night.
- Usual Residence data set – records where people usually live based on Census night.
- Estimated Resident Population (ERP) - the official ABS estimate of the Australian population. While based on results of the Census, it is updated yearly and includes adjustments for Census undercounts and people overseas.
Census in Australia is collected on a “place of enumeration” basis. This means that wherever you’re staying on Census night, that’s where you fill in a form and are counted. This is the best way of ensuring everyone is counted.
Since the early 1980s however, the Australian Census form has also asked “Where was the person’s usual address?”, which is to be filled in for people to be counted away from home. 95% of people are counted at home anyway, so we are only talking about tinkering around the edges here. The advent of address coding in the early 2000s made it feasible to put people back in their Census Collection District of usual residence, and in 2006 this was made the standard output method for ABS. So if you are a council planning services for your local government area, Usual Residence would likely be the figure you’d use! Here at .id we’ve also moved to this as standard, but we still have the enumerated population available, for those who want a Census-night count, and to compare back to the Census years 1996 and 1991, when Usual Residence is not available for small area geographies.
Here’s a summary of the differences between Enumerated population and Usual residence population:
profile.id now gives users the option to select from comparison years in either Enumerated or Usual Residence datasets, and makes it clear which years are available for each.
However, even Census data at usual residence level isn’t a perfect record of who lives in an area. There may be Australian residents who are not counted due to a myriad of reasons (eg. dwellings missed by a Census collector, incorrectly excluded from a form and assumed counted elsewhere etc.). The estimated resident population includes adjustments to account for these Census undercounts as well as people overseas on Census night who are not required to fill in the Census. The ERP is then updated annually against births, deaths, internal and overseas migration data to provide holistic view on how Australia’s population changing. It also means we don’t have to wait every five years for the population figures! In saying that, Census information forms the base data for these ERPs – and you will be surprised at how estimations can go quite wrong in five years (i.e. the 2011 Census data showed previous population estimates were too high).
Your guide to using this population data:
- If you want to know the characteristics of people who are resident in an area, use the Usual Residence population.
- If you want to know the characteristics of people who were in an area on Census night (eg. a tourist area), or want to compare change back to Censuses pre-2001, use Enumerated.
- If you just want to know the current or past population of an area, use the Estimated Resident Population (updated annually).
Here’s a video to help you better understand these population counts:
.id is a team of demographers, population forecasters, spatial planners, urban economists, and data experts who use a unique combination of online tools and consulting to help governments and organisations understand their local areas. Access our free demographic resources here.
