Notes and Sources

Indicator Notes and Sources

Indicators - Gross Regional Product (GRP)

For the local area this information is synthesized by National Economics using a range of data sources (including ABS labour force survey, tax office and Centrelink datasets) to produce an estimate of the Gross Regional Product of the local economy. GRP is the equivalent of GDP at the local level for a Local Government Area or region, and the calculation method simulates that used for the nation, but is influenced by local characteristics such as types of employment and worker productivity. For more information see National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR)

To enable direct comparison between areas of varying size (eg. local, state, national), each year of data is divided by the base reference year and multiplied by 100 so that all areas are compared on the same scale. The actual size of the economy, and growth is shown in the box at the left. All data are expressed in constant dollar terms for the reference year (shown on the chart).

Changes to historical data

This dataset is underpinned by the NIEIR-ID economic model which is updated each financial year. In each update you can expect to see differences in some of the numbers to previous updates. For more details, see Economic model updates.

Indicators - Local Workers

Employment data presented here are estimates based on National Economics modeling from a number of sources. They are a more accurate and up-to-date estimate of employment in the LGA than the Census figures.

The estimates from NIEIR will generally be higher than the Census figures because they adjust for:

Persons missed by the Census
Persons who didn't state their employment status or place of work
Persons who reported no fixed place of work
Persons whose place of work was not a valid address which could be coded by the ABS.

Derivation: In general, the Census understates employment by 15-20%, including about 12.5% of known working population in the Census who could not be coded to a valid workplace.

Estimates of employment by industry from ATO income tax returns are used by postcode of residence and are converted to LGA of residence. Tax data is used because it is more timely and accurate than Census income data.

The Census undercount listed above is identified and allocated to workplace locations in accordance with the distribution for similar industry types of residents of the LGA who nominated a workplace. The results are then adjusted on a quarterly basis by employment results in the ABS Labour Force Survey. Estimates are also checked against commercial and industrial floorspace completion rates by location and industry in intercensal years.

Please note that these modelled estimates are subject to change. Estimates are reviewed when more recent and robust data becomes available, particularly when new National or State Accounts data are released by the ABS, or new tax office income data are released. Most recent financial year estimates are based on a combination of factors including Centrelink and Labour Force Survey data, which is replaced by ATO income data when it becomes available. As a result of this, revisions to the model for all years may be expected, and large revisions for the last two financial years are possible, when the new data are released each November, for the previous financial year. These revisions could change the statistical outcomes, so please treat the most recent years’ data with caution.

Indicators - Local Businesses

The Australian Business Register came into existence on 1 July 2000, as a method of GST registration. It has since then become an increasingly important source of statistical information about Australia's businesses, as every trading business with a turnover of $75,000 or more per year must register, with optional registration for smaller businesses.

Individual ABN lookup is available to the public. Detailed unit record information is available for Local Government users in pursuit of legitimate local government activities. More information is available from the Australian Business Register.

This page on economy.id is only enabled where the client has given .id permission to extract the ABR information on behalf of the LGA. This is done on a quarterly basis, and a set of filters is applied.

These filters take the very large list of all businesses which have ever been registered in the LGA and create a current set of businesses registered for GST. This dataset filters out all businesses which:

have ceased operation
have no industry details available
have never or are no longer registered for GST
are in one of the "pseudo-business" categories, including Family Trusts, Self-Managed Superannuation Funds, Deceased Estates and Strata Title units. While these are legitimate entities to hold an ABN, they cannot be considered businesses which are relevant to economic development goals and are therefore excluded

Businesses not registered for GST are very small, often hobby businesses. Nevertheless they may be relevant to local government economic development. The sheer number of them, however, makes statistical analysis difficult and not very meaningful as these businesses are usually home-based with many individuals holding multiple ABNs. They show very little spatial pattern. So they are not suitable for presentation in the economy.id mapping component. However a list of these businesses (with the other categories filtered out) is available from .id, and can be provided to legitimate Local Government users who are registered with the ABR. Contact .id for more information.

Businesses with multiple locations

The ABR primarily codes the main business address of the registered entity. However, individual trading locations are now available. Where a secondary business address is listed, this is included in this dataset as a separate business. However this does not necessarily imply that all branches of a larger business are included. Their inclusion will depend whether they are registered with the ABR, which is not a requirement for additional business locations (eg. branch stores).

Comparison with ABS business register

The ABS business register data found is ultimately sourced from the same ABR dataset. .id's filtering methodology is intended to give a business count broadly similar to the ABS but there are some inherent differences. The ABS methodology is designed to provide a sample frame for business surveys. They collect employment and turnover information which is not in the raw ABR data. They also exclude public sector business entities such as schools and hospitals from the dataset, whereas it is included here. The ABS also examine each business to determine if it is actively trading, rather than relying purely on a categorical filter as is used here. .id's filtering mechanism may exclude some legitimate finance businesses which the ABS includes. For more information on the ABS Business Register dataset, please see the ABS website.

Indicators - Building Approvals

Value of building approval data are sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Catalogue number 8731.0 – Building Approvals, Australia. This is a monthly publication, with the data here presented quarterly. Data may be revised up to a year after publication.

The value of approval data includes all approved residential building valued at $10,000 or more and all approved non-residential building valued at $50,000 or more. Value of building work excludes the value of land, and also excludes landscaping, but includes site preparation costs. Both new dwellings and alterations and additions to existing dwellings are included in the residential approvals.

Data presented here are the "Original" series, which has not been seasonally adjusted or smoothed to remove anomalies. Seasonal adjustment is not available at a local level, so for comparison purposes the state and national figures shown here are also "Original". Seasonally adjusted and trend figures are more often reported on a national basis by the ABS and the media, so for this reason, the figures shown here may not match those often reported.r inclusion will depend whether they are registered with the ABR, which is not a requirement for additional business locations (eg. branch stores).

Indicators - Median House Price

House Price data are sourced from PropTrack (REA group housing listings, updated twice annually) via an LGA's housing.id Housing Monitor.

The PropTrack property database is processed from a range of different sources. All data is externally sourced. Data sources include government sources, advertised listings and rents, geospatial data sets, surveys and valuations.

The median value for a house in a local government area is the value for which half the houses have a valuation above and half below that value.

The State of Victoria owns the copyright in the Property Sales Data and reproduction of that data in any way without the consent of the State and Victoria will constitute a breach of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). The State of Victoria does not warrant the accuracy or completeness of the Property Sales Data and any person using or relying upon such information does so on the basis that the State of Victoria accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever for any errors, faults, defects or omissions in the information supplied.

This information is supplied by ID Consulting Pty Ltd (ACN 084 054 473) on behalf of Proptrack Pty Ltd (ABN 43 127 386 298)

Indicators - Unemployment Rate

The local unemployment data are sourced from Small Area Labour Markets, a quarterly publication by the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. State and National figures are sourced from the ABS Labour Force Survey (Catalogue number 6202.0). The Department of Employment data uses the labour force survey as a base and models it to local level using Centrelink data. Local unemployment is updated quarterly in this collection, and while state and national figures are available monthly, these are also updated on the site quarterly to match the time period of the local numbers. These benchmark figures are those widely published by government and media sites but are not directly comparable to the LGA estimates as they are not annual averages. For comparison purposes, LGA estimates should be compared with data in Table 16b of the publication ABS Labour Force, Detailed - Electronic Delivery publication (catalogue number 6291.0.55.001) which presents 12-month averages of the benchmark regions.

All labour force data are subject to sampling error, as they are derived from a sample survey of approximately 29,000 dwellings nationwide.

All labour force data relate to the civilian population aged 15 years and over.

The definition of unemployment used is the standard ABS and international definition - Unemployed persons are defined as all persons aged 15 years and over who were not employed during the reference week, and either 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.

Employed persons are those aged 15 years or over who, during the survey reference week, worked for one hour or more for pay, profit or payment in kind in a job or business, or on a farm; or worked for one hour or more without pay in a family business or on a farm; or who had a job but were not at work for a number of specified reasons; or were employers or self-employed persons who had a job, business or farm, but were not at work.

Indicators - Jobseeker Numbers

JobSeeker and Youth Allowance statistics are released monthly by the Department of Social Services, at the SA2 level in Australia. These replace previous datasets released quarterly, on all Centrelink recipients registered in Australia.

JobSeeker name (from March 2020) for the payment formerly known as Newstart, and formerly known as JobSearch allowance. It is the current name for the welfare payment more broadly known as unemployment benefits, or colloquially "the dole".

Youth Allowance (other) is a payment to people aged 21 and under who are seeking work. It differs from student youth allowance which has conditions on undertaking study and replaces former AusStudy and apprenticeship allowances. Your Allowance (student) is not included in this table, while Youth Allowance, the equivalent of JobSeeker for those under 21, is included.

For more information on the Department of Social Services payments, see the raw JobSeeker datasets on data.gov.au

Data are shown here by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2), which is how they are released. SA2s do not always align to Local Government Area boundaries. SA2s represent suburbs, towns districts which may cover multiple localities, with an average size of around 10,000 people.

The LGA or regional total is created by aggregating SA2s by the proportion of their working-age population falling into the LGA at the 2021 Census. The JobSeeker and Youth Allowance numbers are apportioned by this population proportion to the LGA, but there is no provision made for a distribution of recipients within the boundaries - these are assumed to be uniform. For that reason, LGA numbers should be considered approximate only, where any SA2s cross the LGA boundary. In these cases, the sum of the SA2s listed will not equal the LGA total which includes only a portion of some SA2s.

JobSeeker and Youth Allowance rates are intended to give a guide to the prevalence of unemployed and potentially underemployedpopulation in the area. People who receive the JobSeeker or other similar government payments are not necessarily classified as unemployed (just as those classified as unemployed are not necessarily going to also be in receipt of a government payment). It differs from the Unemployment Rate in that includes people who have work, but may not be working enough hours to lose payment entitlements.

Indicators - Visitor Numbers

Tourism Research Australia conduct two major annual surveys for the purpose of promoting and understanding the Australian Tourism Market.

The International Visitor Survey (IVS) samples 40,000 short-term international travellers aged over 15 when they leave Australia. It contains approximately 100 questions and is interviewer-based. The primary purpose of this survey is to derive reliable estimates of visitors by country of origin, reason for visit and expenditure at the Tourism Region (TR) level. Results for smaller areas are available and shown here, but they are subject to sampling error.

Details of sampling errors and confidence intervals are found on the Tourism Research Australia International Visitor Survey Methodologypage.

The National Visitor Survey (NVS) is conducted annually by telephone survey of approximately 120,000 Australian residents. It contains over 70 questions relating to travel within Australia by Australian residents, including destinations, purpose of trip, transportation, activities, expenditure and accommodation. This survey outputs data on overnight trips (including length of trip) and day trips by destination. Selected data from this survey are shown here. Details on the level of sampling error and further information on the methodology from the survey can be found the Tourism Research Australia National Visitor Survey Methodology page.

The results from each of these surveys are weighted by population and demographics to produce estimates of total visitation shown in this topic.

Results are produced by Tourism Research Australia from the IVS and NVS at the Tourism Region level, and at the SA2 level. SA2s do not always align to LGA boundaries, and in those cases, to derive the LGA level estimates shown in economy.id, a concordance has been used which apportions the SA2 to the LGA of interest based on an estimate of the total number of businesses on either side of a boundary. This is necessarily an approximation, but as these results are surveys based on respondents recollections of travel rather than absolute boundaries, it is not expected to have a major impact on the results for most LGAs.

Confidentiality and data reliability

To protect the confidentiality of individual respondents, and due to concerns about unreliable data due to small sample sizes, Tourism Research Australia requires the suppression of all data items from the IVS and NVS based on a sample size of less than 40. Though actual sample sizes are not shown on this site, this data suppression has been actioned. Data marked with a "-" have been suppressed because they are based on small and unreliable samples. In some cases, individual financial years' data have been suppressed for this reason, but a 5 year average may still be able to be published. This means that time series cannot be shown, but it still allows the user to gain an understanding of broad tourism patterns in the area.

Additional datasets may be available using different combinations of geography or categories, even where the data shown here has been suppressed. .id has access to the TRA Online database and we are happy to help our clients with custom data requests where they will help inform the tourism picture of the area. Please contact .id for more information.

Indicators - State Demand

State demand data is drawn from the ABS Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product.

State final demand measures consumption and investment spending by the household, business and government sectors. It is the state-level equivalent of Domestic Final Demand which is a measure of spending. It is different from GSP as it excludes international and interstate trade as well as the change in inventories. State final demand is published as part of the quarterly national accounts whereas GSP is only published annually.

More information on the National Accounts Methodology can be found here.

Indicators - Retail Turnover

State retail data is drawn from the ABS Retail Trade, Australia.

This publication presents estimates of the value of turnover of retail trade for Australian businesses. This includes all employing retail trade businesses who predominantly sell to households. Information is drawn from the Retail Business Survey which includes about 700 large businesses and 2,700 smaller businesses selected by random sample. The survey is conducted monthly primarily by telephone interview. A small number of questionnaires are mailed.

More information on the Retail Trade Methodology can be found here.

Indicators - Unemployment Rate

State unemployment data is drawn from the ABS Labour Force, Australia.

The monthly Labour Force Survey (LFS) provides information about the labour market activity of Australia's resident civilian population aged 15 years and over. The LFS is designed to primarily provide estimates of employment and unemployment for the whole of Australia and, secondarily, for each state and territory. The ABS has been conducting the Labour Force Survey since 1960, initially as a quarterly survey. In February 1978, the frequency of the survey was changed from quarterly to monthly.

Statistics from the monthly Labour Force Survey are released in two stages:

The initial release is Labour Force, Australia, which includes headline estimates of employment, unemployment, underemployment, participation and hours worked for Australia, and the states and territories.
The second release is Labour Force, Australia, Detailed, which includes more detailed monthly and quarterly data.

More information on the Labour Force Methodology can be found here.

Indicators - Inflation Rate

State inflation data is drawn from the ABS Consumer Price Index, Australia.

The Consumer Price Index is an indicator of the inflation rate run by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. It measures the changing price of a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by the average household in 8 capital cities around Australia. This is combined into an index number, calculated quarterly, and the percentage change for the year to the latest quarter is shown.

Data on CPI is a proxy for the rate of inflation in the consumer sector, and does not necessarily translate into inflation for goods purchased by industry. However it is an easily accessible measure of the inflation rate and can be used to assess the changing value of money over time. CPI is not available for small areas, so the nearest capital city rate is shown.

More information on the Consumer Price Index Methodology can be found here.