Paper: The geographical patterns of birth seasonality in Australia

This file was prepared by Tom Wilson on 26 August 2020
Contact: wilson.t1@unimelb.edu.au

*** DATA ***

Births data file: Australian_births_data.csv

Summary: The births data were supplied as a customised table by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
They are counts of births aggregated over years 2001-2016 by month of birth by SA4 region. 
Importantly, the data refer to the month in which the birth occurred (rather than when it was
registered, which is normally how ABS reports births data). SA4 regions are subnational areas with 
populations generally in the range 100,000-500,000 in the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). 

Digital boundary data

Digital boundary data for SA4 regions used in the maps in the paper was obtained from the file
'Statistical Area Level 4 (SA4) ASGS Ed 2016 Digital Boundaries in ESRI Shapefile Format'
which is available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website at
https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/1270.0.55.001
on the 'Downloads' page. 
If the URL has changed since this file was prepared go to the ABS website at
https://www.abs.gov.au/
and type in the search box '1270.0.55.001'.

*** PROGRAMS ***

The Births Index was calculated in Microsoft Excel 2019. The heatmap (Figure 1) and the scatter 
plots (Figure 4) were created in Excel.

Maps (Figures 2 and 3) were produced using QGIS 3.10.