The census usually resident population count of New Zealand is a count of all people who usually live, and are present, in New Zealand on a given census night. This count excludes visitors from overseas and excludes residents who are temporarily overseas on census night.
Data calculation/treatment
This data has been randomly rounded to protect confidentiality. Individual figures may not sum to totals and values for the same data may vary in different tables.
Census counts are not directly comparable with other published population estimates. The estimated resident population is higher than the census usually resident population count because the estimates make an allowance for net census undercount and residents who are temporarily overseas at the time of the census. They also have a different reference date – 5 March for the 2013 Census and 30 June for population estimates.
Changes to data collection/processing
This time series is irregular. Because the 2011 Census was cancelled after the Canterbury earthquake on 22 February 2011 the gap between this census and the last one is seven years. The change in the data between 2006 and 2013 may be greater than in the usual five-year gap between censuses. Be careful when comparing trends.
At URL provided, select 'Total New Zealand', under the '2013 Census meshblock dataset – CSV files' heading.
Extract the 2013-mb-dataset-Total-New-Zealand-Individual-Part-1.csv from the zip file. Please note the meshblock-level data has been removed to reduce file size.
From the dataset Census: Meshblock Dataset - Individual Part 1 (absolute values) 2013, this data was extracted:
Sheet: Census2013-Ind1
Range: CA2364:HS2385
Provided: 3,278 data points
Dataset originally released on:
April 02, 2014
Purpose of collection
The census is the official count of how many people and dwellings there are in New Zealand. It takes a snapshot of the people in New Zealand and the places where we live.
Population information from the census helps determine how billions of dollars of government funding is spent in the community. It is used to make decisions about services such as hospitals, schools, roads, public transport, recreational facilities. Census information is used to decide electorate boundaries. It is also used by councils, community groups and businesses to plan for the future.