SEIFA

Socio-Economics Indexes for Areas (usually known by its acronym SEIFA) is a product of the Australia's national statistical agency, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which measures and ranks areas according to socio-economic and positional disadvantage based on information derived from the five-yearly Census of Population and Housing. The SEIFA is the most widely used general measure of socio-economic status (SES) by area, whose size may range from Census Collection Districts and metropolitan suburbs through to large Statistical Divisions such as metropolitan areas. The variables used are typically income, education, occupation and housing conditions.

Each area is ranked on four different indices, each with an average score of 1,000:

• Index of Advantage/Disadvantage—a composite index where lower scores indicate more disadvantaged areas and higher scores indicate more advantaged areas.

• Index of Disadvantage—focuses on low-income areas with lower educational attainment, people in low-skilled occupations and low employment.

• Index of Economic Resources—includes variables such as rent paid, income by family type, mortgage payments and rental properties.

• Index of Education and Occupation—includes all education and occupation variables.

The SEIFA indexes are published every five years as data cubes or as Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Formerly available only to subscribers, the index was made available for free on the ABS website after changes in legislation relating to all ABS electronic products in 2005-06. It is used by federal, state and local government agencies as well as community and business groups.

External links

• SEIFA Information Paper (ABS)
• Summary from Grape and Wine RDC
• Indigenous SEIFA - revealing the ecological fallacy (paper delivered to Australian Population Association by Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, Queensland)