Women in Australia
2004
Women in Australia
2004
Actively looking for work - persons who were taking active steps to find work. Active steps comprise:
Affective disorders - are characterised by a mood disturbance accompanied by either manic or depressive symptoms. Includes depression and dysthymia, mania, hypomania and bipolar affective disorder.
Age Pension customer - a person receiving full or partial Age Pension. The qualifying age for Age Pension eligibility for men is 65. From 1 July 1995, the qualifying age for women is gradually being raised from 60 to 65 years. At 30 June 1999 the qualifying age for women was 61.5 years.
Age-specific birth rate - the number of live births registered during the calendar year, according to age of mother, per 1,000 of the female estimated resident population of the same age as estimated at 30 June.
Age specific death rate - the number of deaths (occurred or registered) during the calendar year at a specified age per 1,000 of the estimated resident population of the same age at mid-point of the year (30 June).
Age standardisation - used to allow the comparison of populations with different age structures. A standard age composition is used to produce the age standardised estimate or proportion which would have prevailed at another point in time or other geographic area should the actual population have the standard age composition.
Anxiety disorders - feelings of tension, distress or nervousness. Includes agoraphobia, social phobia, panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Apparent retention rate - the number of full-time school students in a designated level/year of education expressed as a percentage of their respective cohort group (which is either at the commencement of their secondary schooling or Year 10).
Apprentice - a person who has entered into a legal contract (called an indenture or contract of training) with an employer, to serve a period of training for the purpose of attaining tradesperson status in a recognised trade.
Assault - is the direct infliction of force, injury or violence upon a person, including attempts or threats, providing these are in the form of face-to-face direct confrontation and there is reason to believe that the attempts/threats can be immediately enacted.
Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) - a national standard classification which includes all sectors of the Australian education system: that is, schools, vocational education and training, and higher education. From 2001, ASCED replaced a number of classifications used in administrative and statistical systems, including the ABS Classification of Qualifications (ABSCQ). The ASCED comprises two classifications: Level of Education and Field of Education. See Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) (Cat. no. 1272.0).
Award course - a program of study formally approved/accredited by an institution or any other relevant accreditation authority and which leads to an academic award granted by the institution or which qualifies a student to enter a course.
Blackmail/extortion - to demand or unlawfully obtain money, property or any other item of value, or a service either tangible or intangible, not from the immediate possession of the victim, but through coercive measures. It may include the use or threat of force, misuse of authority (including threat of criminal prosecution), or the threat of destruction of the victim's reputation or social standing at some time in the future, if the demands are not met.
Carer Payment customer - a person receiving an allowance on the basis that he/she provides full-time care to another person who has a physical, intellectual or psychiatric disability and who is receiving a government pension or allowance.
Casual employees - those employees not entitled to either paid annual or sick leave.
Cause of death - also referred to as the underlying cause of death, is the disease or injury which initiated the train of morbid events leading directly to death. Accidental and violent deaths are classified according to the external cause (or that which produced the fatal injury) rather than to the nature of the injury.
Certificate Level - provides a knowledge and skills base ranging from an understanding of basic concepts and the ability to perform a defined range of routine and predictable activities, to a breadth, depth and complexity of knowledge incorporating some theoretical concepts and the ability to apply knowledge and skills to a variety of contexts most of which are complex and non-routine. This broad level comprises the following narrow levels: Certificate III & IV Level and Certificate I & II Level
Cohabiting couples - refer to males and females, both aged at least 15 years, who are in a registered or de facto marriage and are usually resident in the same household.
Commencement - in Department of Education, Training and Youth Affair (DETYA) collections, a commencing student for 1999 is a person who enrolled for the first time in a particular higher education course at a particular higher education institution after 31 March 1998 and before 1 April 1999. In National Centre of Vocational Education Research (NCVER) collections; commencements refers to those trainees commencing training in a particular vocation for the first time. Community Development Employment Projects - the Community Development Employment Projects operate through grants from ATSIC to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community organisations. Income support entitlements are pooled to pay wages to Indigenous people working for the community.
Completion - in Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) collections, the successful completion of all the academic requirements of a course which includes any required attendance, assignments, examinations, assessments, dissertations, practical experience and work experience in industry. In National Centre of Vocational Education Research (NCVER) collections, completions refers to those trainees who have completed a contract for which all of the prescribed requirements have been met. In ABS collections, the completing student is one who has completed all academic requirements for the conferring of an award from an institution.
Confinement - a pregnancy that results in at least one live birth. Contributing family worker - is a person who works without pay, in an economic enterprise operated by a relative.
Core activity restriction - is determined if a person with one or more disabilities needs help or supervision, or has difficulty with selected tasks associated with the core activities of communication; mobility; self care. The four levels of restriction are:
Couple family - a family containing two persons who are married (including de facto) and who are usually resident in the same household. The family may include any number of dependants, non-dependants and other related individuals and can also consist of a couple without children present in the household.
Crude birth rate - is the number of live births registered during the calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population at 30 June of that year. For years prior to 1992, the crude birth rate was based on the mean estimated resident population for the calendar year.
Crude death rate - is the number of deaths registered during the calendar year per 1,000 estimated resident population at 30 June. For years prior to 1992, the crude death rate was based on the mean estimated resident population for the calendar year.
Crude divorce rate - the number of divorces granted in the calendar year per 1,000 of the estimated resident population at 30 June of that year.
Crude marriage rate - the number of marriages registered in the calendar year per 1,000 of the estimated resident population at 30 June of that year.
Dependent children - all family members aged under 15 years; or aged 15-24 years participating in full-time education (excluding those classified as husbands, wives or lone parents).
Disability - a person has a disability if he/she has a limitation, restriction or impairment, which has lasted, or is likely to last, for at least six months and restricts everyday activities.
Disability-adjusted life year - is a summary measure of population health that combines information on mortality and non-fatal health outcomes. It is a measure of the years of healthy life lost due to illness or injury-one DALY is one lost year of "healthy life". DALYs are calculated as the sum of the years of life lost due to premature mortality in the population and the equivalent years of healthy life lost due to poor health or disability.
Disability Support customer - a person receiving a pension on the basis of an assessed physical, intellectual or psychiatric impairment and on his/her continuing inability to work. A person is taken as having a continuing inability to work if, because of his/her impairment, he/she is unable to work or be retrained to work 30 hours or more per week, within the next two years. People who are permanently blind automatically qualify for the pension.
Discouraged jobseeker - people who were marginally attached to the labour force, wanted to work and who were available to start work within four weeks but whose main reason for not actively seeking work was that they believed that they would not find a job for any of the following reasons:
Disposable income - gross income less personal income tax (including the Medicare levy and other ad-hoc periodic levies).
Earnings - income from wages or salaries.
Employed - persons aged 15 and over who, during the reference week; worked for one hour or more for pay, profit, commission, payment in kind; worked without pay in a family business; or who had a job but were not at work during that period.
Employee - a person who works for a public or private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary, other cash payments or payment in kind, or a person who operates his/her own incorporated enterprise with or without hiring employees.
Employer - a person who operates his/her own unincorporated economic enterprise or engages independently in a profession or trade, and hires one or more employees.
Enabling course - a program of study which:
Estimated resident population (ERP) - ERP data are quarterly estimates of the Australian population obtained by adding to the estimated population at the beginning of each period the components of natural increase (on a usual residence basis) and net overseas migration gain. Ex-nuptial births - births where the mother was not registered as married at the time of the birth. Ex-nuptial births include those where the parents were living together in a de facto relationship at the time of the birth.
External enrolment - all units of study for which the student is enrolled involve special arrangements whereby lesson materials, assignments, etc are delivered to the student, and any associated attendance at the institution is of an incidental, special or voluntary nature.
Family - two or more persons, one of whom is at least 15 years of age, who are related by blood, marriage (registered or de facto), adoption, step or fostering; and who are usually resident in the same household.
Formal child care - refers to regulated care away from the child's home. The main types of formal care are before and/or after-school care, long day care, family day care, occasional care and preschool.
Full-time employees - refers to persons who were employees in their main job and:
Full-time enrolment - where student load aggregated for all the courses being undertaken by the student in the reference year is 0.75 or more of the full-time load.
Full-time school student - one who undertakes the workload equivalent to, or greater than, that prescribed for a full-time student of that year level. This may vary between states and territories and from year to year.
Full-time workers - employed persons who usually work 35 hours or more a week (in all jobs) and others who, although usually working less than 35 hours a week, worked 35 hours or more during the reference week.
Government pensions and allowances/Government cash benefits - regular, recurring receipts from government to persons under social security and related government programs. Included are pensions and allowances received by aged, disabled, unemployed and sick persons, families and children, veterans or their survivors, and study allowances for students. Sometimes referred to as government benefit transfers.
Gross income - regular cash receipts before income taxes or the Medicare levy are deducted.
Group household - a household consisting of two or more unrelated people aged 15 years and over.
Higher education - education which takes place in an institution offering higher education courses, but excluding Technical and Further Education (TAFE) courses which may be conducted in a higher education institution.
Home based businesses - where the person(s) usually conducts work at their residential address. These may be either operated at home (where most of the work of the business was carried out at the home(s) of the operator(s)), or operated from home (where the business had no other premises owned or rented other than the home(s) of the operator(s)).
Homicide and related offences - this is a recorded crime statistics offence category which includes the Australian Standard Offence Classification (ASOC) groups of Murder (0111), Attempted Murder (0122), Manslaughter (0131) and Driving Causing Death (0132).
Household - a person living alone or a group of related or unrelated people who usually reside together and have common provision for food and other essentials of living.
Income - regular and recurring cash receipts from all sources including moneys received from wages or salary, government pensions and allowances, and other regular receipts such as superannuation, child support and property income.
Income unit - one person or a group of related persons within a household, whose command over income is assumed to be shared. Income sharing is considered to take place within married (registered or de facto) couples, and between parents and dependent children.
Income quintiles - groupings of 20% of estimated population when units in the population are ranked in ascending order according to each unit's income.
Indigenous - persons who identify themselves as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin.
Individual function replacement cost method - assigns values to the time spent on unpaid work by household members according to the cost of hiring a market replacement for each individual household task.
Industry - classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) (Cat. no. 1292.0).
Informal child care - refers to non-regulated care, arranged by a child's parent/guardian, either in the child's home or elsewhere. It comprises care by (step) brothers or sisters, care by grandparents, care by other relatives (including a parent living elsewhere) and care by other (unrelated) people such as friends, neighbours, nannies or babysitters. It may be paid or unpaid.
Internal enrolment - where all units of study for which the student is enrolled are undertaken through attendance at the institution on a regular basis, or where a student is undertaking a higher degree course for which regular attendance is not required, but attends the institution on an agreed schedule for the purposes of supervision and/or instruction.
Kessler Psychological Distress Scale-10 (K10) - is a scale of non-specific psychological distress based on 10 questions about negative emotional states. The K10 is scored from 10 to 50, with higher scores indicating a higher level of distress; low scores indicate a low level of distress. Scores are grouped as follows:
Kidnapping/abduction - is the unlawful seizing or taking away of another person:
Labour force - for any group, persons who were employed or unemployed, as defined.
Labour force participation rate - for any group, the number of people in the labour force expressed as a percentage of the civilian population aged 15 and over in the same group. Participation rates for persons classified by birthplace are calculated using population estimates which exclude those in institutions. Participation rates for persons classified by school or tertiary institution attendance are calculated using population estimates which include those in institutions.
Leave entitlements - the entitlement of employees to either paid holiday leave or paid sick leave (or both) in their main job.
Level of education - level of education is a function of the quality and quantity of learning involved in an educational activity. It is categorised according to the Australian Standard Classification of Education (ASCED) Level of Education classification, see ASCED (Cat. no. 1272.0).
Level of highest educational attainment - refers to the highest achievement a person has attained in any area of study. It is not a measurement of the relative importance of different types of study but a ranking of qualifications and other educational attainments regardless of the particular area of study or the type of institution in which the study was undertaken.
Life expectancy - refers to the average number of additional years a person of a given age and sex might expect to live if the age-specific death rates of the given period continued throughout his/her lifetime.
Lone parent - is a person with no spouse or partner present in the household but who has a parent-child relationship with at least one dependent or non-dependent child usually resident in the household.
Long-term conditions - medical conditions (illness, injury or disability) which have lasted at least six months, or which the respondent expects to last for six months or more. Includes:
Main English-speaking countries - the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Canada, the United States of America and New Zealand.
Main job - the job in which a person usually works the most hours.
Main reasons used child care - Work-related reasons include working, looking for work and studying/training for work. Personal reasons include study or training (non-vocational), shopping, entertainment, social or sporting activities, giving parents a break/time alone, caring for relatives, visiting doctor, or undertaking voluntary/community activities. Beneficial for child reasons include socialisation/developmental and preparation for school. Other reasons not elsewhere specified.
Manslaughter - is the unlawful killing of a person caused:
Marginal attachment to the labour force - refers to persons who were not in the labour force in the reference week, wanted to work and:
Marital status - persons are classified as married (husband and wife) if they are reported as being married (including de facto) and their spouse was a usual resident of the household at the time of the survey. The not-married category comprises persons who have never married, or are separated, widowed or divorced, as well as those who, although reported as being married, did not have a spouse who usually lived in the household. Registered marital status refers to formally registered marriages and divorces for which the partners hold a valid certificate. Accordingly, people are classified as 'never married', 'married', 'widowed' or 'divorced'.
Mean income/earnings - the total income received by a group of income units divided by the number of income units in the group.
Median age - age at which half the population is older and half is younger.
Median age of first confinement (of the current relationship) - term refers to the age when approximately one-half of the women in a population have their first confinement of the current relationship, and therefore does not necessarily represent the woman's first ever confinement resulting in a live birth.
Median income/earnings - that level of income which divides the units in a group into two equal parts, one half having incomes above the median and the other below.
Median value - for any distribution median value (age, duration, interval) is that value which divides relevant population into two equal parts, half falling below the value and half exceeding it. Where the value for a particular record has not been stated, that record is excluded from the calculation.
Mental disorder - according to the International Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders (ICD- 10), a disorder implies 'the existence of a clinically recognisable set of symptoms or behaviour associated in most cases with distress and with interference with personal functions' (WHO 1992, p. 5). Most diagnoses require criteria relating to severity and duration to be met.
Mental health - refers to the range of cognitive, emotional and behavioural disorders that impact upon the lives and productivity of people at school, work and home, and their interpersonal relationships. Mental health problems refer to common mental complaints and symptoms.
Multiple job holders - employed persons who worked two or more jobs or held multiple jobs from which they were absent because of holidays, sickness or any other reason. Multiple job holders exclude those who changed employer.
National Health Priority Areas (NHPA) - are agreed upon chronic diseases that have potential for health gains and improved outcomes for consumers and pose a significant burden of disease. They have the support of the Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments. In 2001, these include cancer, diabetes/high sugar levels, heart and circulatory conditions, injuries, mental health and asthma. Arthritis and musculoskeletal diseases were added in 2002.
Newstart Allowance customer - a person who is receiving an allowance on the basis that he/she are unemployed and actively looking for work. The allowance is subject to an income and assets test and recipients must satisfy an activity test.
Non-award courses - programs of study which do not lead to an award and which comprise a unit or units of study which:
Non-school qualifications - are awarded for educational attainments other than those of pre-primary, primary or secondary education. They include qualifications at the Postgraduate Degree Level, Master Degree Level, Graduate Diploma and Graduate Certificate Level, Bachelor Degree Level, Advanced Diploma and Diploma Level, and Certificates I, II, III and IV levels. Non-school qualifications may be attained concurrently with school qualifications.
Not in the labour force - persons who were neither employed nor unemployed, as defined.
Nuptiality - relates to the marital status of the person and the events such as marriages. Confinements and births are identified as being nuptial where the father registered was married to the mother at the time of birth, or where the husband died during pregnancy. Confinements and children of Indigenous mothers considered to be tribally married are classified as nuptial. Other confinements, and the children resulting from them, are classified as ex-nuptial whether or not both parents were living together at the time of birth.
Occupation - a collection of jobs which are sufficiently similar in their main tasks and skill levels to be grouped together for the purposes of classification. These classifications can be found in The Australian Standard Classification of Occupations (ASCO) Second Edition (ABS Cat. no. 1220.0).
Offence - an offence is an act considered prima facie to be in breach of the criminal law.
One-parent family - is a family consisting of a lone parent with at least one dependent or non-dependent child (regardless of age) who is also usually resident in the household. The family may also include other related individuals.
Other family persons - individuals who are related to, but do not form a couple or parent-child relationship with, other members of the household (such as adult siblings), and unrelated individuals living in family households.
Other income - includes income other than wages and salaries, own business or partnership income and government pensions and allowances. It includes income received as a result of:
Own account worker - a person who operates his/her own unincorporated economic enterprise or engages independently in a profession or trade and hires no employees.
Parenting Payment customer - is a person who is the primary carer of a child aged under 16 years, irrespective of his/her marital status. Parenting Payment (single) replaced the Sole Parent Pension for sole parents from 20 March 1998. Income and assets tests must be satisfied. Only one member of a couple can receive Parenting Payment (partnered). A partnered parent can get the basic payment without counting his/her partner's income or his/her combined assets. The additional rate is payable to carers with a low income partner, or with a partner receiving a Newstart Allowance or other pension.
Partner Allowance customer - is a person who is the dependent partner of a person receiving a government allowance or pension. The partner must have been born before 1 July 1955, have no dependent children and have no recent workforce experience.
Part-time employees - refers to persons who were employees in their main job and:
Part-time enrolment - where student load aggregated for all the courses being undertaken by the student in the reference year is less than 0.75.
Part-time workers - employed persons who usually worked less than 35 hours a week and who did so during the reference week.
Paternity acknowledged birth - a birth outside registered marriage where the father has acknowledged paternity on the birth certificate.
Physical violence - see Assault.
Population projections - are illustrations of the growth and change in the population which would occur if specific assumptions about future demographic trends prevail over the projection period. Projection results published by the ABS are not intended as predictions or forecasts. Series II is based on three differing levels and assumptions:
Primary carer - is a person of any age who provides the most informal assistance, in terms of help or supervision, to a person with one or more disabilities. The assistance has to be ongoing, or likely to be ongoing, for at least six months and be provided for one or more of the core activities of self-care, mobility or communication.
Qualification - an award for attainment as a result of formal learning from an accredited non-school institution.
Quintiles - Groupings that result from ranking all households or people in the population in ascending order according to some characteristic such as their household income and then dividing the population into five equal groups, each comprising 20% of the estimated population.
The Remoteness Structure - is a new Australian Bureau of Statistics classification designed to provide a measure of remoteness across Australia. Remoteness Areas, as defined in Chapter 8 in Statistical Geography: Volume 1 - Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), 2001 (ABS Cat. No. 12160.0), are based on the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA). ARIA measures the remoteness of a point based on the road distances to the nearest ABS defined Urban Centres (which are classified to five population size classes). The basic premises of ARIA are that there are more services available in large towns than small towns, and that remoteness is a factor of the relative distance one must travel to access a full range of services. The Remoteness Structure geographically classified Australia into six areas according to their relative remoteness (or ARIA score). As remoteness is measured nationally, not all Remoteness Areas are represented in each state or territory. The six Remoteness Areas are: Major Cities of Australia; Inner Regional Australia; Outer Regional Australia; Remote Australia; Very Remote Australia and Migratory. Residents of non-private dwellings - individuals residing in hotels, motels, guest houses, gaols, religious and charitable institutions, military establishments, hospitals, retirement villages and other communal dwellings.
Risk factors - features or exposures that are associated with a greater risk of ill health in an individual.
Robbery - offences involving unlawful taking of property, with intent to permanently deprive the owner of the property, from the immediate possession of a person, or an organisation, or control, custody or care of a person, accompanied by the use, and/or threatened use of immediate force or violence. Robbery victims can therefore be persons or organisations. In this publication, 'robbery victims' refers only to persons.
School - an educational institution which provides primary or secondary education on a full-time daily basis, or by radio or correspondence.
Section of State (SOS) - this geographical classification uses population counts to define Collection Districts (CDs) as urban or rural and to provide, in aggregate, statistics for urban concentrations and for bounded localities and balance areas. Section of State represents an aggregation of non-contiguous geographical areas of a particular urban/rural type. The Sections of State defined include Major Urban (population clusters of 100,000 or more), Other Urban (population clusters of 1,000 to 99,999), Bounded Locality (population clusters of 200 to 999), Rural Balance (remainder of State/Territory) and Migratory, and in aggregate cover the whole of Australia.
Separation (hospital) - refers to an episode of care from admission into hospital to discharge, death or transfer to another hospital, or type of care.
Sex ratio - relates to the number of males per 100 females. The sex ratio is defined for total population, the birth, death and among age groups by appropriately selecting the numerator and denominator of the ratio.
Sexual assault - is a physical assault of a sexual nature, directed toward another person where that person:
Small business - small businesses (excluding agricultural businesses) of those businesses employing less than 20 people.
Substance use disorders - harmful use or dependence on drugs (illegal and prescription drugs) or alcohol.
Tertiary education - formal education beyond secondary education, including higher education, vocational education and training, or other specialist post-secondary education or training. Also called post-secondary education or further education.
Total fertility rate - the average number of children a woman would bear during her lifetime if she conformed to the current age-specific fertility rates throughout her life.
Trade union members - employees with membership in a trade union in conjunction with their main job.
Trainees - any persons undertaking employment-based training under a contract of training.
Unemployed - persons who are not employed during the reference week, and:
Unemployment rate - for any group, the number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force in the same group.
Unincorporated business - the business in which the owner(s) and the business are the same legal entity, so that, for example, the owner(s) are personally liable for any business debts that are incurred.
Upper quintile boundary - the upper limit value of the quintile group (see 'quintiles').
Victim - the victim varies according to the offence category:
In this publication, 'victim' refers only to persons.
Violence - physical assault, attempted physical assault, threat of physical assault, sexual assault or threat of sexual assault.
Vocational education and training - post compulsory education and training, excluding degree and higher-level programs delivered by higher educational institutions, which provides people with occupational or work-related knowledge and skills. Vocational education and training also includes programs which provide the basis for subsequent vocational programs.
Wages and salaries - the gross cash income received as a return to labour from an employer or from a person's own incorporated business.
Weekly earnings - refers to the amount of 'last total pay' (i.e. before taxation and other deductions had been made) from wage and salary jobs prior to the interview. For persons paid other than weekly, earnings were converted to a weekly equivalent. No adjustment was made for the payment of wage increases or prepayment of leave, etc.
Widow Allowance customer - a woman over 50 years of age who has become widowed, divorced or separated since turning 40 years of age and has no recent workforce experience.
Wife Pension customer - a woman who is the wife of an Age or Disability Support customer and not eligible for a pension in her own right. No new grants have been made from 1 July 1995.
Years of potential life lost - measures the extent of 'premature' mortality, where 'premature' mortality is assumed to be any death at any age between one and 75 years inclusive.
Youth Allowance customer - a young person receiving an allowance on the basis that they are looking for work, studying or are sick. The Youth Allowance was introduced on 1 July 1998 to replace Austudy for students under 25 and other payments for young people under 21. A parental means test applies unless the customer is assessed as independent.
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