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How to read demographic charts for a catchment in Placemaker

See who lives in your catchment beside a benchmark, and how that changed between Census years

This guide shows you how to read Census charts for a catchment – cultural diversity, education, households, income, health and housing – compare them with a benchmark and download them. Use it when you need to describe the people in a catchment, not only how many will live there.

Before you begin

Steps

  1. Open Insights: Click 'Insights' at the top of the screen, then choose your catchment from the selector on the left of the filter bar.
  2. Open the Demographics tab: Click 'Demographics', beside Population, Dwellings and Education. The menu on the left lists every chart under its heading – Cultural diversity, Education, Households, Work and income, Health and care and Housing tenure and costs. Click any chart name to jump to it.

    Screenshot showing the Demographics tab in Insights in Placemaker.
  3. Choose a benchmark: Use 'Benchmark' to pick the area to compare against. Placemaker suggests the state, Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA), SA4 and Local Government Area your catchment sits in, or you can search for any other area. Every chart shows your catchment and the benchmark side by side.
  4. Choose Census years: Use 'Years' to pick 2011, 2016 or 2021. The tab opens on 2021. You can show change between 2 years and see the different in percentage points. and all charts update.
  5. Filter categories: Use the filter at the top right of a chart to pick the categories you want. Long lists, such as country of birth, religion and language, show the top 10 by default. Tick or search for others, or click 'Reset to top 10'.
  6. Switch between bars and table: Click 'Table' to read the exact figures. Click 'Bars' to go back to the chart.
  7. Download: Click the download icon on a chart and choose 'Download PNG' or 'Download CSV'.

What to expect

Headline stats at the top give your catchment's median age, median weekly household income, median weekly rent and median monthly mortgage repayment for 2021, each marked above or below the benchmark.

Below them, each chart shows the share of people, households or dwellings in your catchment beside the benchmark, so you can see straight away where your catchment differs – more couples with children, a higher share of renters or a different school sector mix. Under Education, market share by school type shows the share of primary and secondary school-aged children attending government, Catholic and independent schools.

Under Cultural diversity, Born in Australia shows the share of people born in Australia and overseas.

SEIFA shows your catchment's index scores without a benchmark.

Every chart names its source, such as 'ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2021 (BPLP)'. Click the info icon at the bottom right of a chart to see its source, ABS variable, Census years, smallest geography (SA1) and how many SA1s were summed for your catchment.

Troubleshooting

  • Some charts disappear when you select two years: Only datasets that can be compared across Census years show a change chart. Indigenous status, SEIFA, household income and labour force status show for a single year only. Select one year to see them again.

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