The Working Zones (WZs) statistical geography describes regions that reflect commuting patterns of Australian workers.

WZs reflect actual commuting patterns, ie where people live and where they work. WZs are useful for spatial analysis of economic, social and policy issues at a regional level because they reflect the actual geographic behavior of individuals, as opposed to other administrative and political boundaries. They are particularly useful for analysing labour markets, because individual WZs have minimal work-based commuting flows either into or out of adjoining WZs.

There are 313 WZs across Australia. The 2021 WZs are aggregations of the 2021 Australian Statistical Geography Standard Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2s) boundaries. The SA2s have been aggregated using commuting flow data from the 2016 Census of Population and Housing.

More information about the construction of Working Zones can be found here:

Working zones update | Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts