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NSW Electorate Profiles: 2013 Redistribution

NSW Electorate Profiles: 2013 Redistribution

Advice on legislation or legal policy issues contained in this paper is provided for use in parliamentary debate and for related parliamentary purposes. This paper is not professional legal opinion.
Background Paper 01/2014 by Daniel Montoya and Jack Finegan

This paper presents data from the 2011 Census of Population and Housing for the 93 NSW State Electoral Districts (SEDs) as redistributed in 2013. Figures from the 2006 Census have also been included except for family income. In this case, the statistics are not directly comparable because the income brackets changed between the Censuses.

A political party affiliation has been given for each electoral district. As the electoral districts have been redistributed since the most recent election in 2011, the party affiliation shown is notional only. The allocation is based on the 2011 election results adjusted by the new boundaries as calculated by Antony Green in 2013 New South Wales Redistribution: Analysis of Final Electoral Boundaries, NSW Parliamentary Research Service Background Paper No 02/2013. Using the Electoral Pendulum in that paper, the results of the five by-elections held since the 2011 election in the Clarence, Heffron, Miranda, Northern Tablelands and Sydney electorates have been taken into account.

Each SED is profiled with details of population and other selected census characteristics. Three numbers from the 2011 Census are provided for each census characteristic:


    · A count of persons/families/dwellings;

    · The count expressed as a percentage of the total electoral division population, or a subset of that population; and

    · The electorate's rank in relation to all electorates (in most cases based on the percentage).


In many cases, the percentage provided for a census characteristic was calculated in relation to the total number of persons in the electoral district. However, for approximately half of the characteristics provided, the percentage was calculated in relation to a subset of the electoral district's total population. For example, the total number of employed persons in an electoral district is expressed as a percentage of the total number of persons in the electoral district aged 15 and over. A table showing the population used when calculating the percentage for each characteristic is provided on page 5. This follows a list of definitions set out on pages 2 to 4.

A companion Background Paper - NSW State Electoral Districts Ranked by 2011 Census Characteristics: 2013 Redistribution - presents the same data by census characteristic, thereby enabling easy comparison of SEDs. Three additional editions of the companion paper will be released, separately highlighting all the electorates of each major party – Labor, Liberal and National.

The revised May 2014 version of this paper, which was first released in February 2014, supersedes all previous versions.