What is the FEDSF?

Dimensions of data set

Indicative data code groups

Description of the summary tables

Errata

Download an .rtf version of documents related to the FEDSF

What is the FEDSF?

The Federal Electoral Division Summary File presents summary characteristics of persons and dwellings for every Federal Electoral Division (FED) in Australia.

The records for each FED include a geographic area code for Commonwealth (Federal) Electoral Division (1977 boundaries) and table information made up of 48 tables giving data for both persons and dwellings. The tables include counts for males and females by marital status, usual major activity, usual residence, ages, use of English language, birthplace of parents, birthplace, period of residence, religion, educational institution attending, age left school, highest qualification, income, duration of marriage, total issue, occupation, occupation status, hours worked, number of jobs, mode of travel to work, family type, child minding facilities used, pensions or benefits received; and dwelling counts by type of dwelling, material of walls, number of rooms and bedrooms, facilities, number of vehicles, power or fuel used, nature of occupancy, weekly rent, sources of mortgages, mortgage payments, structure of building and reason unoccupied.

Dimensions of data set

The Summary File contains 1 file of FED level summary data.

There are 139 logical records, one for each of the 131 FED's and one total for each State and Territory. There are 61,299 physical records, 441 per logical record. There are 9 different record types, each containing 49 x 80 character physical records.

Codebook

The FED Summary File contains 139 logical records, one for each FED (131) and one for each State and Territory total (8). There are 61,299 physical records, with 441 per logical record. There are 9 different record types, each containing 49 x 80 character physical records for each FED. Each record type contains, on record 1, the record type number (1 character) and the FED code (3 characters). On records 2-49, table information is given in 10 character cells.

For some basic information about the way Census 76 was planned, designed, executed and processed, information on the person and dwelling characteristics included in statistical output and some guidance to other census products, see Making Sense of Census 1976.

Indicative data code groups

Commonwealth Electoral Division

The Commonwealth Electoral Division boundaries used in the creation of this data file are those at the last redistribution (November 1977). The possible values that a Commonwealth Electoral Division code can take and their meanings are:

	001	Adelaide (SA)		030	Corangamite (VIC)
	003	Balaclava (VIC)		031	Corio (VIC)
	004	Ballaarat (VIC)		032	Cowper (NSW)
	005	Banks (NSW)		033	Cunningham (NSW)
	006	Barker (SA)		034	Curtin (WA)
	007	Barton (NSW)		036	Darling Downs (QLD)
	008	Bass (TAS)		037	Dawson (QLD)
	009	Batman (VIC)		038	Deakin (VIC)
	010	Bendigo (VIC)		039	Denison (TAS)
	011	Bennelong (NSW)		040	Diamond Valley (VIC)
	012	Berowra (NSW)		041	Eden-Monaro (NSW)
	013	Blaxland (NSW)		043	Farrer (NSW
	014	Bonython (SA)		044	Fisher (QLD
	015	Boothby (SA)		045	Flinders (V C)
	016	Bowman (QLD)		046	Forrest (WA)
	017	Braddon (TAS)		047	Franklin (TAS)
	018	Bradfield (NSW)		048	Fraser (ACT)
	019	Brisbane (QLD)		049	Fremantle (WA)
	020	Bruce (VIC)		050	Gellibrand (VIC)
	021	Burke (VIC)		051	Gippsland (VIC)
	022	Calare (NSW)		052	Grayndler (NSW)
	023	Canberra (ACT)		053	Grey (SA)
	024	Canning (WA)		054	Griffith (QLD)
	025	Capricornia (QLD)	055	Gwydir (NSW)
	026	Casey (VIC)		056	Hawker (SA)
	027	Chifley (NSW)		057	Henty (VIC)
	028	Chisholm (VIC)		058	Herbert (QLD)
	029	Cook (NSW)		059	Higgins (VIC)
	060	Hindmarsh (SA)		100	Paterson (NSW)
	061	Holt (VIC)		101	Perth (WA)
	062	Hotham (VIC)		102	Petrie (QLD)
	063	Hughes (NSW)		103	Phillip (NSW)
	064	Hume (NSW)		104	Port Adelaide (SA)
	065	Hunter (NSW)		105	Prospect (NSW)
	066	Indi (VIC)		106	Reid (NSW)
	067	Isaacs (VIC)		107	Richmond (NSW)
	068	Kalgoorlie (WA)		108	Riverina (NSW)
	069	Kennedy (QLD)		109	Robertson (NSW)
	070	Kingsford-Smith (NSW)	110	Ryan (QLD)
	071	Kingston (SA)		111	Scullin (VIC)
	072	Kooyong (VIC)		112	Shortland (NSW)
	073	Lalor (VIC)		113	St George (NSW)
	075	La Trobe (VIC)		114	Stirling (WA)
	076	Leichhardt (QLD)	115	Sturt (SA)
	077	Lilley (QLD)		116	Swan (WA)
	078	Lowe (NSW)		117	Sydney (NSW)
	079	Lyne (NSW)		118	Tangney (WA)
	080	Macarthur (NSW)		119	Wakefield (SA)
	081	Mackellar (NSW)		120	Wannon (VIC)
	083	Mallee (VIC)		121	Warringah (NSW)
	084	Maranoa (QLD)		122	Wentworth (NSW)
	085	Maribyrnong (VIC)	123	Werriwa (NSW)
	086	McMillan (VIC)		124	Wide Bay (QLD)
	087	Fadden (QLD)		125	Wills (VIC)
	088	Melbourne (VIC)		126	Wilmot (TAS)
	089	Melbourne Ports (VIC)	128	Migratory (NSW)
	090	Mitchell (NSW)		129	Migratory (VIC)
	091	Moore (WA)		130	Migratory (QLD)
	092	Moreton (QLD)		131	Migratory (SA)
	093	Murray (VIC)		132	Migratory (WA)
	094	Newcastle (NSW)		133	Migratory (TAS)
	095	New England (NSW)	134	Migratory (NT)
	096	Northern Territory	135	Dundas (NSW)
	097	North Sydney (NSW)	136	McPherson (QLD)
	098	Oxley (QLD)		137	Lawson (NSW)
	099	Parramatta (NSW)

	1	New South Wales
	2	Victoria
	3	Queensland
	4	South Australia
	5	Western Australia
	6	Tasmania
	7	Northern Territory
	8	Australian Capital Territory

Description of the Summary Tables

The Summary File contains data cells from the 48 summary tables listed below. Full details of the tables and cells are given in the "Condensed Format Summary Tables Description File (download .rtf version)".

The table information is made up of 48 tables containing 1517 cells giving data for both persons and dwellings. The first 3 fields on each of the 9 records are Record length, Record type and zero fill respectively. The relationship between Record Type and Tables is as follows:

Record Type	Table Numbers	Total N of Cells
1	2-5	120
2	6-8	246
3	9-10	378
4	11-16	146
5	17-24	109
6	25-26	142
7	27-33	126
8	34-42	100
9	43-49	150

The population of each table is as follows:

Table Number	Population
2	Various major categories covering both population and dwellings.
3-4	Total population.
5	1976 - total population. 1975, 1971 - total population at home on 30 June 1976.
6	Total population.
7	Total population aged 5 years or more.
8	Total Australian born population.
9	Total overseas born population.
10	a Australia - total Australian born population. b Overseas - total overseas born population. c table total - total population (relates to columns 1-4 only).
11	Total overseas born population.
12-14	Total population.
15-16	Total population aged 15 years or more.
17	Total now married women.
18	Total ever married women.
19	Total children aged 0-5 years (by addition of last five lines only).
20	Total population aged 15 years or more (by addition of last three lines only).
21	Total population.
22-23	Total population of the labour force.
24-28	Total employed population.
29	Indeterminate as any one employed person may use more than one mode of travel.
30	Total families in private dwellings.
31	Total families in private dwellings (excluding communes).
32	Total families in private dwellings.
33	Total households ie total occupied private dwellings (excluding private boarding houses).
34-44	Total occupied private dwellings.
45	Total rented occupied private dwellings.
46	Total number of mortgages.
47	Total occupied mortgaged private dwellings (columns 1 and 3 only).
48	Total private dwellings (both occupied and unoccupied).
49	Total unoccupied private dwellings.

Errata

The following notes were issued by the ABS concerning tables from the Federal Electoral Division Summary Files.

Table 5

The part of Table 5 which shows the 1971 usual residence of the population has been found to have errors in most categories. Although, on a small area basis, the error may not be significant, it is suggested that users contact the ABS if they require detailed information about the types of errors involved.

Table 13

Table 13 which shows the number of people attending educational institutions by the type of institution has been found to be in error. The number of persons attending schools and other institutions has been understated by persons who said they attended a school or other institution but did not state the name of the institution (ie. type of institution was not stated). It is suggested that users contact the ABS if they require detailed information about the type of errors involved.