Geography K–10 · Years 9–10
Mapping advantage and disadvantage: a choropleth from ABS SEIFA scores
Geographies of human wellbeing (ACARA Year 10 sub-strand); NSW Stage 5 focus area Human Wellbeing (2015 syllabus) and Human wellbeing (2024 syllabus)
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The idea
Wellbeing varies across places within Australia, and a choropleth map of an index shows the pattern, but the classes chosen for the map change what the pattern appears to be.
What you need
- ABS Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) 2021: Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage scores and deciles by local government area for 20 LGAs in one region, in a spreadsheet
- A printed outline map of the same LGAs (ABS boundaries)
- One colour in five shades from light to dark; ruler
How to do it
- Read the ABS explanatory notes for the index's direction (whether a low score means more or less disadvantage) and the meaning of a decile before shading anything.
- Map the 20 LGAs by decile in five classes (deciles 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 7–8, 9–10), darker for more disadvantage, and add a legend and a title with the source and year.
- Map the same scores a second time with five equal-interval classes: class width = (highest − lowest) ÷ 5.
- Describe the pattern on each map and list where the two maps disagree.
- Write two sentences on why an area's score describes the area and not each person living there.
What you should see
Two choropleth maps of the same 20 scores, each with a legend and source line, and a written list of LGAs that change class between the maps. Equal-interval classes crowd most areas into one or two classes when a few extreme scores stretch the range, while decile classes put the same number of Australian areas in each decile nationally; the learner states which map suits which question. Arithmetic check: scores from 850 to 1100 give an equal-interval class width of 50. It worked if the index direction was read from the ABS notes before shading.
What changes
This activity lists no variables to change, measure and keep the same.
Common misconceptions
Each of these ideas is wrong, and the activity is a chance to test it.
- The map shows how well off every person in an area is.
- A choropleth shows the one true pattern in the data.
Safety card
Hazards
No hazard is listed.
Controls
- discussion of places avoids naming or judging individual people or schools
Note
No chemicals or heat are used. The activity is run under the school risk-assessment procedure; RiskAssess (riskassess.com.au) holds templates for school practicals and fieldwork. The NSW Department of Education Chemical Safety in Schools package is not triggered.
Curriculum references
The NSW syllabus outcomes and Australian Curriculum v9 codes this activity supports. They are references, not a verified or complete curriculum alignment.
- Geography K–10 Syllabus (2015), NESA; current and taught in 2026, replaced from 2027. The outcome codes are not printed on the NESA landing page for this syllabus, which only links the document, so the url given is the syllabus document itself (geography-k-10-syllabus-2015.docx); the code and its outcome text were read in that document on 23 September 2026.GE5-6GE5-7GE5-8
- Geography 7–10 Syllabus (2024), NESA; implementation from 2027, not yet taught; code read on this page on 22 September 2026GE5-TAP-01GE5-COM-01
- Australian Curriculum v9AC9HG10K07AC9HG10S02AC9HG10S06
Sources
The pages the author read to write this activity.