The Internal Heterogeneity of Australian Census Units and its Effect on Social Ecological Analyses

Abstract

When Census (or other) units are used in social ecological research an implicit assumption is that the units are, in an appropriate sense, internally homogeneous. However, there appears to have been no investigation of the extent to which this assumption holds for the various units for which Australian Census results are released. Using 1976 Census data for Perth, this paper examines one part of this topic, viz. the extent to which the Collectors Districts (CDs) which comprise each Census Subdivision (CSD) can be considered homogeneous. The research shows that although the CSDs are reasonably internally homogeneous in terms of a large number of variables there are several important variables for which this is not the case. Heterogeneity is generally highest in the CSDs showing low familism. Factor and cluster analyses based on CDs and CSDs also show differences resulting from the internal heterogeneity of the CSDs. Overall, the conclusion reached is that the CSDs are noticeably inferior to the CDs as analytical units.