Family size in New Zealand

2023 Census, number of families

The following information applies to all values in the table. Census Year: 2023, Subject population: Families in occupied private dwellings, Unit: Count
Number of people in family	Number of families
Two People	661,320
Three People	277,104
Four People	238,902
Five People	83,376
Six People	22,971
Seven People	6,780
Eight People	2,472
Nine People	969
Ten People	381
Eleven People	132
Twelve People	63
Thirteen People	18
Fourteen People	12

Data Quality

Using this data

You can use this data confidently. Stats NZ rated it as high quality.

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.

Subject matter

A dependent child is a child aged under 15 years or aged 15–17 years and not employed full time. An adult child is a child in a family who is aged 15 years or over and employed full time, or a child in a family who is aged 18 years or over.

Definitions

Family: A family nucleus comprises a couple with or without child(ren), or one parent and their child(ren) whose usual residence is in the same household; the children do not have partners or children of their own living in that household. Included are people who were absent on census night but usually live in a particular dwelling and are members of a family nucleus in that dwelling, as long as they were reported as being absent by the reference person on the dwelling form or the household summary page.
Extended family: An extended family is a group of related people who usually reside together (1) either as a family nucleus with one or more other related people, or (2) as two or more related family nuclei, with or without other related people.
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.
Census night population count of New Zealand: a count of all people present in New Zealand on census night. This includes visitors from overseas who are counted on census night but excludes residents who are temporarily overseas on census night.

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

Inclusions

Geographically the census includes the North Island, South Island, Stewart Island, and the Chatham Islands, plus largely uninhabited islands including the Kermadec Islands, Three Kings Islands, Mayor Island, Motiti Island, White Island, Moutohora Island, Bounty Islands, Snares Islands, Antipodes Islands, Auckland Islands, and Campbell Island.

Data provided by

Stats NZ

Dataset name

Census: Totals by topic for families and extended families, (NZ total), 2013, 2018, and 2023 Censuses

Webpage:

https://explore.data.stats.govt.nz/vis?fs[0]=2023%20Census%2C0%7CTotals%20by%20topic%23CAT_TOTALS_BY_TOPIC%23&pg=0&fc=2023%20Census&bp=true&snb=12&df[ds]=ds-nsiws-disseminate&df[id]=CEN23_TBT_002&df[ag]=STATSNZ&df[vs]=1.0&dq=.2013%2B2018%2B2023&ly[rw]=CEN23_TBT_FEF_001&ly[cl]=CEN23_YEAR_001&to[TIME]=false

How to find the data

At the URL provided, download unfiltered data.
Figure.nz calculated the percentages for processing purposes.

Import & extraction details

File as imported: Census: Totals by topic for families and extended families, (NZ total), 2013, 2018, and 2023 Censuses

From the dataset Census: Totals by topic for families and extended families, (NZ total), 2013, 2018, and 2023 Censuses, this data was extracted:

Sheet: STATSNZ,CEN23_TBT_002,1.0+all
Range: I152:M214
Provided: 123 data points

This data forms the table Census - Families by number of people in family 2013, 2018, 2023.

Dataset originally released on:

November 07, 2024

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 with making 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.