Derived Variables

Derived variables are created from the data in the following circumstances.

• When questions are asked in an easy-to-answer form which requires recombination to a common metric.
• When some ‘other, specify’ answers are coded (notably sources of other income).
• When a complex combination of data occurs (for example, family type).
• When open-ended answers are converted to standard codeframes (industry; occupation; post-school qualifications).
• When missing data are imputed.
• When external data are matched to derive applicable measures (for example, weighting; socio-economic indicators for areas; remoteness area).

Derived variables are created at both the household and person levels. Most derived variables are available in each wave. A description of how the variable was derived is supplied in the coding framework and additional information is provided in this user manual as necessary.

All derived variables have the prefix ‘DV:’ in the variable label. Missing values have the same codes as collected data. Derived variables are not annotated on the marked up questionnaires, but are included in the various coding frameworks.

The derived variables fall into the following categories:

• Age and Sex
• History Variables
• Spatial Variables
• Current Education Variables
• Current Marriage and Defacto Relationship Variables
• Children Variables
• Child Care Variables
• Employment Variables
• Calculating Hourly Wage Rate
• Calendar Variables
• Family Variables
• Health Variables
• Housing Variables
• Time Use Variables
• Household Expenditure Variables
• Life - Personality Variables
• Income Variables and Income Imputation
• Wealth Variables and Wealth Imputation (wave 2 special topic)
• Weights