Asian people in New Zealand who can speak Cantonese

By ethnicity, 2023 Census, % of people where information available

Data Quality

Using this data

You can use this data confidently. Stats NZ rated it as high quality. For more information, read about response rates below.

Stats NZ gives data an overall rating based on sources and coverage, consistency, and data quality.

Why am I seeing this?

This data is from the Census. The past two censuses had relatively low response rates, particularly for some areas of New Zealand and groups of people.

Where information was missing or unreadable, Stats NZ attempted to use data from a range of places such as previous censuses or administrative data that is collected by other government agencies. If that isn't available, Stats NZ use statistical models to predict what the missing data would have been. This is called imputation.

Things to be aware of

The language classification with the highest imputation rate is the Central Eastern Malayo-Polynesian language group. This category includes Te Reo Māori and most of the languages spoken in the Pacific. A person may vary their reporting of their ethnicity, including the number of ethnicities they identify with, according to the context in which they are asked. This is a consideration when comparing the 2023 Census results with other sources. For the 2023 Census, changes to the online form as-you-type list were made to encourage more specific responses.

Read the response rates and final data sources section for more information.

Subject matter

The official language indicator provides high-level information on which languages, and how many, a person can speak or use. This includes New Zealand Sign Language. Ethnicity is the ethnic group or groups a person identifies with or has a sense of belonging to. It is a measure of cultural affiliation (in contrast to race, ancestry, nationality, or citizenship). This demographic attribute is self-perceived, and a person can belong to more than one ethnic group.

Response rates and final data sources

For language spoken, the response rate from 2023 Census forms was 85.3%. 8.8% of responses were sourced from forms submitted during previous censuses. The remaining 5.8% of responses were imputed. For ethnic group, the response rate for this question from 2023 Census forms was 86.0%. A further 8.8% of the data come from responses to the previous Censuses. Administrative data made up 4.4% of the response while the remaining 0.8% of the data was derived from statistical imputation.

Definitions

Census usually resident population count of New Zealand: a count of all people who usually live in and were present in New Zealand on census night. It excludes overseas visitors and New Zealand residents who are temporarily overseas.

Data calculation/treatment

This data has been randomly rounded to protect confidentiality.
Figure.NZ calculated percentages based on the 'Total stated' values for each variable. Individual percentages may not sum to 100% and values for the same data may vary in different tables.

For more information

https://datainfoplus.stats.govt.nz/item/nz.govt.stats/7c1335e0-c2c7-4217-ac48-bfc7a68aea48
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/2023-census-population-dwelling-and-housing-highlights/

Data provided by

Stats NZ

Dataset name

Census: Select variables by detailed ethnic group (custom request) - Language spoken 2023

How to find the data

This data was originally produced by Stats NZ for the Ministry of Ethnic Communities (MEC).
Figure.NZ was restructured and organised by Figure.NZ for processing purposes.

Import & extraction details

File as imported: Census: Select variables by detailed ethnic group (custom request) - Language spoken 2023

From the dataset Census: Select variables by detailed ethnic group (custom request) - Language spoken 2023, this data was extracted:

Sheet: Data
Range: F2:G43383
Provided: 74,108 data points

This data forms the table Census - Usually resident population by detailed ethnicity, MEC group, and language spoken 2023.

About this dataset

The New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings is the official count of how many people and dwellings there are in New Zealand. It provides a snapshot of our society at a point in time and helps to tell the story of its social and economic change. The 2023 Census, held on Tuesday 7 March, was the 35th New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings. The first official census was run in 1851, and since 1877 there has been a census every five years, with only four exceptions.

Purpose of collection

Census information is used by government agencies, local authorities, businesses, community organisations, and the public for developing and implementing new policies, research, planning, and decision-making. It helps us make decisions about how to best use public funding, especially in areas of health, education, housing, and transport.
The census is also the primary source of information used for deciding the number of general and Māori electorates, along with data from the corresponding Māori Electoral Option.