Australian Bureau of Statistics
3301.0 - Births, Australia, 2007 Quality Declaration
Previous ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/10/2008
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APPENDIX DIFFERENCES BETWEEN COLLECTIONS
The following analysis of differences between the collections is made on live births between the Perinatal Data Collection on a year of occurrence basis and the Birth Registrations collection on a year of registration basis.
Age of mother
Age of mother is a factor which contributes to differences between the two collections. In 2005, a higher number of confinements were recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection than in the Birth Registrations collection for mothers in all age groups. For mothers aged 19 years and under, there were 10.6% more confinements recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection, while for mothers aged 20-24 years the difference was 8.4%.
Births to Indigenous mothers
There are differences between Indigenous data from the Perinatal Data Collection and birth registrations data. In all years from 1997 to 2005 the number of births to Indigenous mothers as recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection exceeded registered births to Indigenous mothers. In 2005 there were 9,900 live births to Indigenous mothers recorded in the Perinatal Data Collection, 1,300 more than the number recorded in the Birth Registrations collection (8,600).
It is important to recognise that data concerning Indigenous status is affected by identification issues. Differences between the Perinatal Data Collection and birth registrations data may in part be due to undercoverage of registrations of Indigenous births or delays in the registration of Indigenous births. However, failure to determine Indigenous status may also affect the Perinatal Data Collection. As a result, caution should be used when interpreting Indigenous births data from either source. Paragraphs 30 to 36 of the Explanatory Notes provide further information about Indigenous births.
State and territory comparisons
While birth registration data provides information on state/territory of registration or state/territory of usual residence of mother, the Perinatal Data Collection only provides data on the state/territory in which the birth took place (that is, the state/territory of occurrence). The following table compares state/territory of usual residence from birth registrations to state/territory of occurrence from the Perinatal Data Collection. As a small number of births occur in a different state or territory to that of the mother's usual residence, there are some minor differences. For example, some women living in rural New South Wales close to the Australian Capital Territory have their babies in Canberra. As a consequence, the Australian Capital Territory has been excluded from the comparisons below.
In 2005, the Perinatal Data Collection recorded more births in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia, while the ABS birth registrations collection recorded more births in Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
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This page last updated 10 November 2009