Disability Program Information Collection (previously known as Disability Services Census) - the linkage key
- What is the background to the linkage key?
- What is the linkage key?
- What does the linkage key look like?
- How does the department collect the linkage key?
- Further Information
What is the background to the linkage key?
The linkage key was first used in the 1999 Commonwealth Disability Services Census following the distribution of Disability Data Briefing Number 12 from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare to all Australian Government funded disability service providers.The purpose of the linkage key is to help overcome the problem of double counting in the Commonwealth State Disability Agreement National Minimum Data Set collection. The linkage key is a statistical tool that allows consumers accessing multiple service types on census day to be recognised without identifying the individual.
What is the linkage key?
The linkage key contains 14 characters that comprise:- the second, third and fifth letters of a person's last name
- second and third letters from a person's first name
- date of birth, and
- sex code.
If a person has a last name less than five letters or a first name less than three letters the missing letter will be replaced by a ' - '. Spaces, apostrophes, and titles such as 'the III', are not included as part of the linkage key. For Asian names where the last name is written first, the last name is included in the last name field. If a person has only one legal name, the single name is considered as a Last name. Sex is represented by a one-character code: male (1) or female (2).
What does the linkage key look like?
The following examples show how individual linkage keys are produced.| Name | Date of birth | Sex | Linkage key |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown, John | 15/02/1965 | Male | RONOH150219651 |
| Davies, Jane | 2/11/1941 | Female | AVEAN021119412 |
| Day, Natasha | 10/07/1938 | Female | AY-AT100719382 |
| Von Behrens, David | 18/02/1974 | Male | ONEAV180219741 |
| D'ambrosio, Sarah | 6/12/1962 | Female | AMRAR061219622 |
| Ronaldo | 12/03/1945 | Male | ONL--120319451 |
| Pang, Ho | 6/06/1966 | Female | AN-O-060619662 |