The 2023 Census will be held on March 7th this year. New questions include gender, variations of sex characteristics and sexual identity information. There are also preparation questions for the NZ Household Disability Survey and improvements to the iwi affiliation question.
“There will be a lot that is familiar in the 2023 Census. The majority of questions are the same as for previous censuses, because one of the benefits of doing a census is to understand what is changing for the country over time. Everybody will fill out an Individual Form, or have one filled out on their behalf, for example, if they are an infant. There will also be a few questions about your household and about the dwelling you are living in,” said Simon Mason, Deputy Government Statistician and Deputy Chief Executive Chief Executive Census and Collection Operations.
“To help people understand what is being asked, we have published the questions from the census forms on the census website. The questions reflect the broad range of uses of census data. Most of the topics covered are the same as previous censuses, for example, population demographics, location, ethnicity, culture and identity, education and training, income, work, families and households, housing, transport, cigarette smoking, and disability.
“Collecting this information not only provides a count of the population and dwellings, but when grouped and combined together as anonymised data, provides a rich understanding of life in New Zealand. This enables government, councils, iwi and community groups to respond with policies, services and funding to support the needs of communities, population groups, and the country as a whole.
“Our focus is on ensuring we get good responses to the information we have collected previously. There are some limited changes to the questions being asked. We will collect gender, variations of sex characteristics, and sexual identity information for the first time. Some minor changes to questions and an additional question will also support preparations for the New Zealand Household Disability Survey, which will happen after the 2023 Census. We have also made improvements to questions to make them easier to understand. For example, the question on iwi affiliation provides better information to enable Māori to respond.”
