Data sources

The Person-Level Integrated Data Asset (PLIDA) (formerly known as the Multi-Agency Data Integration Project (MADIP)) was used to provide information about humanitarian entrants and other permanent migrants in Australia who arrived in or after the year 2000.

PLIDA is a partnership among Australian Government agencies to develop a secure and enduring approach for combining information on healthcare, education, government payments, personal income tax, migration, and demographics (including Census) to create a comprehensive picture of Australian over time (ABS 2018).

For more information on PLIDA, see Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) – Data assets.

The key PLIDA data sets used in this analysis were:

  • Person Linkage Spine (Spine – ABS)
  • Settlement Database (SDB – Department of Home Affairs)
  • Medicare Consumer Directory (MCD – Department of Health and Aged Care/Services Australia)
  • Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS – Department of Health and Aged Care)
  • Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS – Department of Health and Aged Care)
  • 2021 Census of Population and Housing (Census – ABS)
  • Causes of Death (COD – ABS)
  • Deaths Registrations (Deaths – ABS)
  • PLIDA Combined Demographics File (ABS).

Data included in this report were based on data extracts available in PLIDA at the time of analysis (2023). Due to this, there may be differences in the numbers published in this report and other reports which have used more up-to-date data.

This section describes the techniques used to identify the refugee and humanitarian entrant cohort and assess health indicators in this population.