Local Government - Financial position of local authorities 2000–2025

Assets: are what the local authorities own. Assets represent a store of value, and can be a source of income or generate economic benefit when used. Assets are either current or non-current.
Liabilities: are debts that establish an obligation by local authorities to pay another party. Liabilities can be current or non-current.
Current assets: are short-term assets or those readily converted to cash. Examples include: cash and bank deposits, stocks held, short-term accounts receivable, pre-payments, Treasury bills, and short-term loans.
Current liabilities: are short-term debts due to be paid within the next 12 months. These include short-term loans, short-term provision for employee entitlements, short-term accounts payable, short-term provision for landfill aftercare, and pre-payments.
Non-current assets: can be fixed assets, such as infrastructure, land and buildings, or long-term investments, long-term accounts receivable, and long-term loans.
Non-current liabilities: are obligations to pay off debt due in more than 12 months. These include term debt and other non-current liabilities like long-term provision for employee entitlements, long-term accounts payable, and long-term provision for landfill aftercare.

The Local Authority Census for recent years year did not achieve full coverage. Historically, the legal requirements to provide financial data to Stats NZ, and the Local Government Act, have meant that Local Authority Census returns and annual reports have been available for all units.
As local authorities have varying organisational structures and accounting systems, data for some council activities and data items is not always readily available. Therefore, it is sometimes estimated (by either the local authority or by Stats NZ).

At URL provided, download 'Local authority financial statistics: Year ended June 2025 – CSV' zip file.

Local authority financial statistics provide information on the annual performance of core non-trading activities of all New Zealand's territorial and regional councils.

Stats NZ collect data on local authorities' finances in the Local Authority Census, a comprehensive and detailed questionnaire. For most local authorities, the requested data will be based on their audited financial accounts, supplemented by information from individual local authority annual reports and subsequent enquiries to councils.
Information collected from New Zealand museums are also included in this release as these data are covered in government finance statistics (local government).