Good data ‘critical’ to NZ picture

The 2018 census was the first since 2001 for which content was fully reviewed, with public consultation starting in mid-2015 and largescale testing in 2016 and 2017.

New questions looked at whether houses were mouldy or damp, access to basic amenities, where people lived a year ago, and how people got to their place of education. There was also substantial change to questions about disability.

By midnight Tuesday 2.98 million people had taken part in the census online, Statistics NZ said.

‘‘We aimed for 60 per cent of those in New Zealand to complete it by midnight and we are very happy to have achieved this,’’ 2018 Census general manager Denise Mcgregor said.

Minister for Statistics James Shaw said half a million reminder letters had been sent to homes that had not completed the census, and 170,000 paper forms had been requested.

Last week saw higher rates of completion from people aged 65 and over compared with the 18-25 category.

Shaw said feedback from the elderly was they were tired of being portrayed as not digital savvy, and that completing online was really helpful. ‘‘Like every other census there will be a major review looking at every aspect of the census,’’ he said.

Housing quality

The 2018 census was the first to collect information on mould and damp, while access to basic amenities was last included in 1996.

The information would help address housing quality issues and feed into the legislative requirements of councils, Stats NZ said.

‘‘The presence of mould is regarded as one of the easiest types of housing quality questions to answer and one of the best selfassessed measures of housing quality. It is less affected by individual perceptions than other types of housing quality information such as coldness.’’

The census also changed the question on home heating to include types of appliances rather than just fuel types.

‘‘Different types of appliances that use the same fuel can have different effects on energy demands, heating costs, and health.’’

Questions about the way people travelled to places of education and the address of the institution were included for the first time.

‘‘Having travel to education data as well as travel to work data will provide a more complete picture of transport patterns in different areas of New Zealand and support transport planning work.’’

For the first time since 1981 the census included a question about where people were living a year ago. It replaced a question on where people were living five years ago.

An increase in people changing homes over time had led to a need for the information, to produce accurate population estimates, Stats NZ said.

Major change was made to questions on disability and activity limitations from the 2013 census. The aim of the questions was to compare levels of participation by disabled people in such things as employment and education with those of non-disabled people, to see if disabled people were achieving social inclusion.

Completion concern

Distinguished Professor Paul Spoonley – pro vice-chancellor at Massey University’s college of humanities and social sciences – had concerns about the number of people who had done the census so far.

‘‘I’m not sure that 60 per cent is actually that flash,’’ he said. ‘‘The question is how they’re going to do the follow-up to get closer to 100 per cent. I think they’ve got quite a challenge on their hands.’’

Given it was the first time the emphasis had been on getting the census done online, he was interested in how accurate the data was.

He also felt something had been lost by no longer having people deliver census forms to every household then pick them up afterward. That approach was important for some groups, such as the elderly, people new to the country, those without a good grasp on English, and often for people in more remote areas.

The census was critical because it was the one opportunity to understand the New Zealand population as a whole. ‘‘If you don’t have good data on our population then you can’t make good decisions.’’