Research Projects
About the AUSEI
The Australian Socioeconomic Index 2006 (AUSEI06) is the latest in the series of ANU occupational status scales. These scales provide a simple means for researchers to convert data coded in accordance with the official occupational classifications of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) into occupational status scores. They have been widely used in a range of disciplines over the past 40 years.
AUSEI06 is intended for use with data coded in accordance with the first edition of the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO). The scale is a continuous measure which ranges from 0 (low status) to 100 (high status). It can be applied to men and women, part-time and full-time workers, the self-employed and employees. Like all occupation-based measures, scores can only be directly assigned to persons in employment. However, in the absence of other information such as previous occupation or spouse's occupation, an AUSEI06 score can be imputed if a person's education level is known.
AUSEI06 scores are available for all ANZSCO major, sub-major, minor, and unit group codes. However, researchers are strongly urged to code occupational data to the ANZSCO unit group level in order to permit use of the full version of the scale.
The AUSEI06 scale is available for download in a variety of formats (SAS, SPSS, and EXCEL).
Earlier ANU scales (ANU1-ANU4) are also available for download.
Suggested citation: Julie McMillan, Adrian Beavis, & Frank L. Jones, (2009) 'The AUSEI06: A new socioeconomic index for Australia' Journal of Sociology. Vol 45(2): 123-149.