Abbreviated as BPLP; referenced by 8 other explainers
Birthplace shows the country of birth of people in an area. It lists the top countries, plus Australia and a Born elsewhere catch-all.
The figures come from Census data. The Australian Bureau of Statistics collects them.
ABS gives a separate Not stated count for country of birth. So this marker shows a Country of birth not stated row next to the country rows.
The ABS list uses official country names. Some names are short forms. Hong Kong (SAR of China) is the ABS form for the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The list splits the United Kingdom into England, Scotland, and Wales. Northern Ireland sits under Ireland.
Country of birth is one of the fields the culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) label is built from. It is not a measure of need on its own.
Each person counts at the country their ABS record gives as place of birth. Say a person is born in one country, moves to a second, then comes to Australia. They still count under their country of birth, not the last place they lived.
The Born elsewhere row groups countries that each fall below the cut-off for their own row. It is not a single country of birth, and it can still stand for many distinct communities.
Countries outside the top group are summed into an All other categories total, so every person is still counted.
The total counts people at their place of usual residence. It covers people in homes such as hospitals, aged-care homes, hostels, and student housing. It leaves out people just visiting from overseas. People born in Australia are counted too.
ABS tweaks small-area counts to keep people safe, which can hide small cells. This is called perturbation.
Place Forecast splits each SA1 figure down to mesh blocks and sums them back to the area you see, so the small-area view is downscaled. The cultural diversity downscaling glossary explains the method and its limits.
Each country at the LGA level matches the ABS figure. This is LGA anchoring.
For service choices about one community, read small-area figures as patterns, not exact counts. Check them with community organisations before drawing strong claims.