Ancestry and language

Information about ancestry and language was obtained from men and women aged 18 years and over in the 2021-22 PSS.

In addition, where a respondent had a current partner who they were living with at the time of the survey, broad information about the first language spoken as a child and main language spoken at home was collected about the current partner as well.

Ancestry is based on the country of birth (COB) of the respondent and the respondent’s father and mother. For details on the collection of COB of the respondent, see Household and Demographic Characteristics chapter of this publication.

For COB output purposes, main English-speaking overseas countries (MESC) include Canada, the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Information about country of birth (COB) was collected for the respondent’s mother and father. This was not asked about their current partner.

The top ten countries of birth, as determined via the 2016 Census of Population and Housing, were available to select from initially. Otherwise, if the response was not one of these, a trigram coder was available to select a response.  See Data Processing and Coding chapter for more details on use of trigram coders.

If the respondent did not know the country of birth of their parents due to adoption or other reasons, they could identify country of birth as unknown.

The responses for the country of birth of parents data items were coded to the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC), 2016 (with updates through to 2019 included). The SACC provides guidelines for the consistent collection, aggregation, and dissemination of statistics by country. Standard output for this classification is discussed in the Classifications and Standards chapter of this publication.

Information about the respondent’s first language spoken as a child and main language spoken at home was collected.

The top ten languages, as determined via the 2016 Census of Population and Housing, were available to select from initially. Otherwise, if the response was not one of these, a trigram coder was available to select a response.  See Data Processing and Coding chapter for more details on use of trigram coders.

The responses were coded to the Australian Standard Classification of Languages (ASCL), 2016. The abbreviated classification used in most standard outputs is shown in the Classifications and Standards chapter of this publication.

Where the respondent had a current partner living with them, they were also asked to provide first and main language spoken on behalf of their partner. The only response categories available were ‘English’ and ‘other language’. Current partners were not approached to provide their own details. If the respondent did not know or did not wish to provide this information on behalf of their current partner, a ’Don’t know’ category was available to select.

Respondents who reported they mainly spoke a language other than English at home, or who first spoke a language other than English as a child, were asked how well they spoke English. These self-assessed responses were recorded against the following categories:

• very well
• well
• not well
• not at all.

Respondents whose main language was sign language or Auslan, and respondents who identified as mute, were not asked this question and have been assigned to the response category of ‘Not stated’.

Proficiency in spoken English was not asked for the respondent’s current partner.

The data items and related output categories for this topic are contained within the SPS Level – Demographics tab in the data item list available under Downloads.

Data for this topic has been collected to examine the relationship between the ancestry/language spoken of respondents and their experiences of violence. Current partner data for this topic can be used to further understand the characteristics of violent and non-violent current partners.

Data items from this topic should not be used on their own to produce general population estimates of ancestry and language spoken. The Census is a more appropriate source of this data.

Points to be considered when using and interpreting data from this topic include the following:

• Respondents who are unable to speak English, and for whom an ABS translator was not available, are offered a proxy interview where another member of the household could answer the compulsory questions on the respondent’s behalf. As such, there may be an under representation of people with limited English language skills in the survey. For more details, refer to Proxy Interviews in the Survey Procedures section of the Survey Development and Data Collection chapter of this publication.
• Proficiency in spoken English is a self-assessed measure based on the respondent’s own perception of how well they speak English.
• The collection of ancestry information in the PSS is defined in terms of country of birth, which does not necessarily reflect the respondent’s self-identified cultural, ethnic, or linguistic background. Similarly, for respondents with adoptive parents, the country of birth of step-parents or guardians may not necessarily reflect the self-declared ancestry of the respondent.

The table below outlines the comparisons of classifications between the 1996 Women’s Safety Survey and each of the PSS cycles.

Current partner data is very limited in 2021-22 due to the reduced scope of the language categories collected. Any data comparisons across time undertaken on characteristics of partners who do or do not use violence should take this into account.