The Statistical Areas presented in the Australian Child and Youth Wellbeing Atlas are based on the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 1 - Main Structure and Greater Capital City Statistical Areas, July 2016.

The ASGS brings together all of the regions used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and other organisations to collect, release and analyse geographically organised statistics. It provides a set of standardised regions (named statistical areas) for visualising, analysing, and understanding data.

Statistical areas divide areas of interest into spatial categories that allow users to see how the data varies across regions. The size and shape of statistical areas impacts upon the picture the resulting data portrays.

Each level of statistical area (i.e. SA2, SA3, SA4) is defined to contain a comparable number of residents. See below a description of the size and approximate population of each Statistical Area presented in the Atlas.