Australian Statistical Geography Standard

"The ASGS brings all the regions for which the ABS publishes statistics within the one framework and will be used by the ABS for the collection and dissemination of geographically classified statistics from 1 July 2011. It is the framework for understanding and interpreting the geographical context of statistics published by the ABS. The ABS also encourages the use of the ASGS by other organisations to improve the comparability and usefulness of statistics generally.

While there are superficial similarities between the ASGS and the Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC), it is important to recognise that the two are fundamentally different and there are significant differences between their respective regions, both in their geographical extent and their conceptual foundation. As a whole, the ASGS represents a more comprehensive, flexible and consistent way of defining Australia's statistical geography than the ASGC."