Referenced by 4 other explainers
ABS classification is the set of rules the Australian Bureau of Statistics uses to sort Census answers into groups. Similar answers are grouped together using ABS classification rules. These groups are used for counting people, households, families, and dwellings.
The group name comes from the ABS classification. It may not be the same words a person, family, or community would use to describe themselves. This means a category on a Place Forecast page shows how the ABS coded the Census answer. It does not always show how someone sees their own identity, faith, family, culture, or background. Read each category as a way of counting responses, not as a full description of a person.
Some Census topics also include a Not stated category. This is used when an answer is blank or cannot be sorted into one of the listed groups.
See the relevant explainer page for how each dataset is classified and counted.