The Audit divides Australia into 73 regions, with boundaries based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 'statistical geography', a hierarchy of statistical areas used by the ABS for its data.
A decision had to be taken about the number of regions to be used in the Audit. Given the scale of the economic modelling, a balance needed to be struck between:
■ having enough regions to plausibly represent the diversity of Australia's demography and economy; and
■ keeping the number of regions at a level that would allow the economic model to be developed and run in a reasonable period.