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Person—main language other than English spoken at home, code (ASCL 1997) NN{NN}

Definition

The language reported by a person as the main language other than English spoken by that person in his/her home (or most recent private residential setting occupied by the person) to communicate with other residents of the home or setting and regular visitors, as represented by a code.

Components

Data Element (this item)
Person—main language other than English spoken at home, code (ASCL 1997) NN{NN}

Representation

This representation is based on the value domain for this data element, more information is available at " Language code (ASCL 1997) NN{NN} ".
Data Type Number
Format NN{NN}
Maximum character length 4
Values
Value Meaning Start Date End Date
Supplementary Values 9900 Not stated/inadequately described

Comments

Origin:

National Health Data Committee

National Community Services Data Committee

Comments:

This metadata item is consistent with that used in the Australian Census of Population and Housing and is recommended for use whenever there is a requirement for comparison with Census data.

This metadata item is important in identifying those people most likely to suffer disadvantage in terms of their ability to access services due to language and/or cultural difficulties. In conjunction with Indigenous status, Proficiency in spoken English and Country of birth, this metadata item forms the minimum core set of cultural and language indicators recommended by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Data on main language other than English spoken at home are regarded as an indicator of 'active' ethnicity and also as useful for the study of inter-generational language retention. The availability of such data may help providers of health and community services to effectively target the geographic areas or population groups that need those services. It may be used for the investigation and development of language services such as interpreter/translation services.

References

Australian Standard Classification of Languages (ASCL) 1997. Cat. no. 1267.0. Canberra: ABS. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra. Viewed 3 August 2005.


This content Based on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare material. Attribution provided as required under the AIHW CC-BY licence.

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Relation Count
Input in Derivations 0
Output in Derivations 0
Inclusion in Data Set Specifications 1
Inclusion in Data Distributions 0
As a numerator in an Indicator 0
As a denominator in an Indicator 0
As a disaggregation in an Indicator 0