Citizenship explained Place Forecast Feature
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Citizenship shows how many people in an area are recorded as Australian citizens and how many are not.
These figures are Place Forecast estimates based on Census data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The two groups are:
- Australian citizen: people who said they are Australian citizens on the Census form.
- Not an Australian citizen: people not recorded as Australian citizens. It covers permanent residents, people on a temporary visa, and people who did not answer.
The ABS table Place Forecast uses gives only the citizen count. It has no separate Not stated count. Place Forecast works out the second group by taking the citizen count away from the total. So it includes people who did not answer. That makes it larger than the number who said they are not citizens.
The ABS makes small adjustments to Census counts to protect privacy. This is called perturbation. Both counts can be affected. So taking one away from the other can distort the result in very small areas.
The total counts people at their usual place of residence. It covers people in non-private homes such as hospitals, aged-care homes, hostels, and student housing. It does not count overseas visitors.
The total here is usually smaller than the area's ERP-based total. It is an unadjusted Census count, not ERP.
Reading this data fairly
These figures show how people answered Census questions. Here are the equity caveats to keep in mind. They keep the numbers fair:
- Citizenship is a legal status. It does not show a person's community ties, English proficiency, how long they have lived in Australia, or who can use services that do not need citizenship. On its own it is not a measure of need.
See the marker methodology for how these figures are calculated and their limitations.