Methodology

Data sources

• Australian Business Register — public ABN Lookup bulk extract (CC BY 3.0 AU)
• ABS Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits (CABEE) — actively trading businesses by SA2 × ANZSIC division
• ABS Regional population — Estimated Resident Population (ERP) by SA2
• ABS ASGS Edition 3 — Postal Area → SA2 correspondence

Why SA2, not suburb?

Australia has no official national “suburb” statistics series for businesses. ABS Counts of Australian Businesses (CABEE) and Estimated Resident Population (ERP) are published at Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2). That is the finest official grain we can use without inventing geography.

SA2 names often look like suburbs but are larger. Example: Panania (South) - Picnic Point is one SA2 covering both southern Panania and Picnic Point (~16,600 ERP), not Picnic Point suburb alone (~6,000). Population and business counts on each page are for the whole SA2.

We also publish SA3 and SA4 region pages that sum the SA2s in each official ABS region (from Regional population geography columns).

We still say “suburb” in URLs and search because that is how people look for places. Postcode is not equivalent to suburb or SA2; ABN postcodes are mapped via official POA → SA2 correspondence (primary SA2 = highest ratio).

Active ABN vs actively trading business

An active ABN means status ACT in the public bulk extract. It does not mean the entity is currently trading. ABS CABEE counts use a separate actively-trading definition and are usually lower than active ABN counts.

ABN entity types

Where shown, entity-type mix (individual, private company, trust, etc.) counts active ABNs mapped to the SA2 via postcode — not CABEE trading businesses. Codes come from EntityTypeInd in the ABR public extract.

ABN registration vs business entry

ABNStatusFromDate is the date the current status started — not a trading start date. “New ABN status” cohorts are not equivalent to ABS business entries.

Business density

Businesses per 1,000 residents = CABEE actively trading count ÷ ERP × 1,000. This is not a measure of consumer demand or market opportunity.

Industry density index

On industry × area pages we compare local density to the median of similar SA2s in the same state (population and/or total business count within ~40%), plus state and national medians. Under-indexed means fewer businesses in that ANZSIC division than peers relative to population — a research starting point, not a green light to open. Café vs restaurant detail is not available at division grain.

Industry

Public ABN extract has no ANZSIC. Suburb × industry figures use ABS CABEE at ANZSIC 2006 division × SA2 (finest defensible public grain in cube 8).

Refresh & IndexNow

Site pages revalidate weekly where ISR is enabled. After significant data or URL updates, URLs can be submitted to Bing and participating engines via IndexNow (/api/indexnow).