Geography

All results are based on the patient's Medicare enrolment postcode, not where they received the health care service. Patients may use services outside of their Medicare enrolment postcode. The accuracy of the patient's Medicare enrolment postcode cannot be determined, and may not reflect their primary residence (for example, the Medicare enrolment postcode may be a PO Box postcode).

The report presents information nationally and at the geography of:

Primary Health Network (PHN) areas
31 geographic areas covering Australia, with 2023 boundaries defined by the Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Correspondences from Postal Areas 2021 to PHN 2023 can be found on Primary Health Networks (PHNs) collection of concordance files (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing 2025).
PHN groups
PHNs have been assigned into 2 groups – Metropolitan and Regional.
Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3)
340 geographic areas covering Australia, with boundaries defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistic's (ABS) Statistical Area Level 3 2021 (ABS 2021).
SA3 groups
SA3s have been assigned into 6 groups:
  • Major cities – higher socioeconomic areas
  • Major cities – medium socioeconomic areas
  • Major cities – lower socioeconomic areas
  • Inner regional
  • Outer regional
  • Remote and very remote.

Geographic allocation

Measures calculated at PHN area and SA3 were compiled by applying a geographic concordance to the unit record data. The concordance used the patient’s Medicare enrolment postcode as recorded on the last claim processed (for any MBS service) in the reporting year. If a patient had more than one postcode listed on their last date of processing in the year, then the postcode was taken from the last date of service on that date of processing. Records with invalid or missing postcodes were included in the national total but not allocated to a PHN area or SA3.

Where a postcode boundary overlapped more than one PHN area or SA3, the percentage of records attributed to each area was the same as the percentage of the postcode population that fell within each area. Postcodes are updated (introduced, retired or changed) over time, which can affect the comparability of how patients are allocated to regions over time.

Figures were rounded at the end of the calculations to avoid truncation error. Individual area results may not add to national totals due to rounding and missing location data.

Metropolitan and regional Primary Health Network groups

PHNs with at least 85% of the population residing in Major cities are classified as metropolitan, based on the ABS remoteness area classification Australian Statistical Geography Standard 2021 (ABS 2023a) and the population distribution as of 30 June 2021. PHNs with less than 85% of the population residing in Major cities were classified as regional.

SA3 (local area) groups

Identification of SA3s with similar socioeconomic or remoteness characteristics can help when making comparisons between areas. Results for local areas (SA3s) are presented by ABS categories of remoteness and, in Major cities, also by socioeconomic groups. Socioeconomic groups were based on the ABS' Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (IRSD) (ABS 2023b). Results are grouped into the following categories:

  • Major cities
    • Higher socioeconomic areas
    • Medium socioeconomic areas
    • Lower socioeconomic areas
  • Inner regional
  • Outer regional
  • Remote and very remote.

SA3s in major cities

The majority of SA3s (191 of 340) across Australia are in the Major cities category (based on the ASGS 2021). SA3 populations can be diverse in terms of socioeconomic areas. To better enable fair comparisons within city areas, SA3s were divided into 3 socioeconomic areas:

  • higher
  • medium
  • lower using the 2021 ABS Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD).

IRSD is one of the Socio-Economic Indexes for Area (SEIFA) produced by the ABS and ranks SA1s from the most disadvantaged area (lowest quantile) to the least disadvantaged area (highest quantile), based on the relative socioeconomic conditions at an overall area level, not at an individual level.

The socioeconomic areas were defined as follows:

  • Lower: SEIFA IRSD quintiles 1 and 2
  • Medium: SEIFA IRSD quintiles 3 and 4
  • Higher: SEIFA IRSD quintile 5.

SA3s in Major cities were allocated to a socioeconomic area based on the largest number of SA1s in each group. Where the number of SA1s was equal in 2 groups, the socioeconomic area was allocated based on the highest proportion of the population. This affected 2 SA3's – Port Phillip (Vic) and Perth City (WA).

Across all SA3s in Major cities, the population percentage in the chosen socioeconomic area ranged from 37% to 95%, using the population distribution as of 30 June 2021. This indicates that some SA3s have a broad diversity in socioeconomic disadvantage.

SA3s by remoteness

SA3 boundaries align well with the ABS remoteness classification for Major cities, Inner regional and Outer regional areas. SA3s are not as well defined between Remote and Very remote areas, so these categories were combined into a single category (Remote and very remote) for this release.

SA3s were allocated to one remoteness category based on the largest percentage of the population in each of the categories, using the population distribution as of 30 June 2021. This ranged from 40% to 100%. However, if 95% of the geographic area in an SA3 was Remote or Very remote, it was categorised based on geographic area rather than population. This affected four SA3s – Broken Hill and Far West (NSW), Outback – North and East (SA), Goldfields (WA) and Mid West (WA).

Ungrouped SA3s

In cases where no SA1s within an SA3 had a SEIFA IRSD score, or the population in the SA3 area was too small to assign to a group, the SA3 was allocated as 'Ungrouped'. This affected 2 SA3's – Illawarra Catchment Reserve (NSW) and Blue Mountains – South (NSW).
 

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