State Suburbs (SSCs)2016 are an Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) approximation of localities gazetted by the Geographical Place Name authority in each State and Territory. Gazetted Localities are the officially recognised boundaries of suburbs (in cities and larger towns) and localities (outside cities and larger towns). Gazetted Localities cover most of Australia. 

State Suburbs (SSCs) are an ABS approximation of Gazetted Localities, created by allocating one or more Mesh Blocks. State Suburbs are created to enable the release of ABS data on areas that, as closely as possible, approximates Gazetted Localities. This methodology is different to the that used in 2011 where State Suburbs were defined using whole SA1s. This is a significant change and as a result Gazetted Localities represented in the State Suburb classification have a better overall level of accuracy. In the context of State Suburbs, 'Suburb' covers both suburbs in urban areas and localities in rural and remote areas of Australia. Previously in 2011, areas of rural South Australia, rural Australian Capital Territory, various islands offshore from New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania and some inshore water areas and islands were not included in State Suburbs. In the 2016 State Suburb classification, the area of South Australia that is not covered by Gaztted Localities has been assigned to the State Suburb SA Remainder. Similarly, the area of the ACT that is not currently covered by Gazetted Localities has been defined as ACT Remainder. ACT Remainder has been further broken down to approximate the ACT District boundaries.


Further information about these regions can be found in the following publication: Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Volume 3 - Non ABS Structure, July 2016 (cat no. 1270.0.55.003). 

15,302 gazetted localities in Australia. "No Usual Address" and "Migratory-Offshore-Shipping" are represented as non-spatial objects in the digital boundaries.