Why census asked about mould
Statistics NZ tells Michael Daly the reasoning behind this year’s census questions.
The 2018 census was the first since 2001 for which content was fully reviewed, with public consultation starting in mid-2015 and large-scale 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.
Some other questions that had been suggested during consultation since the 2013 census – including ones on sexual orientation and gender equality – were tested but not included.
Explaining its decisions on the new questions, Statistics New Zealand said the decision on housing quality followed strong interest during consultation. The issue was considered a tier one – or high priority – statistic.
By midnight Tuesday 2.98 million people had taken part in the census online, Stats NZ said.
‘‘We aimed for 60 percent 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.
‘‘There were some hiccups accessing some people in the blind community, and feedback says Stats NZ re-deployed to change the way they do it,’’ said Shaw.
Last week saw higher rates of completion from people aged 65 and over compared to the 18-25 category, debunking the stories the census alienated the elderly, said Shaw.
He 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.
The 2018 census was the first to collect information on mould and damp, while access to basic amenities was last included in
1996.
‘‘It is not possible to collect detailed information on housing quality in the census, but having some basic information on this available from the census will be a valuable addition to the information available from other sources,’’ Stats NZ said.
Collecting the information would help address housing quality issues and feed into the legislative requirements of councils.
Consultation indicated the importance of collecting information on aspects of housing quality that affected health. No specialist knowledge was needed to answer the questions included, 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.
‘‘A question on whether the dwelling is cold is not as suitable for inclusion because different household members may give different answers, making it difficult to interpret the data.’’
With access to basic amenities, as only a small proportion of private dwellings would lack them, the coverage available by a census was needed.
There had been a lot of interest in a question about insulation, but it was not possible to include one. Many people may not know the answer to questions about insulation, particularly if they rented their house.
The census also changed the question on home heating to include types of appliances rather than just fuel types.
‘‘During consultation it was clearly indicated that information on appliances would be more valuable than information on fuels, and that it is important to distinguish between different appliances that use the same fuel. For example, it is important to distinguish between heat pumps and other appliances that use electricity, and between flued and unflued gas heaters,’’
Stats NZ said.
Questions about the way people travelled to places of education and the address of the institution were included for the first time, because a large proportion of the population travelled to education.
‘‘Their transport needs are different from those travelling to work but relatively little is known about this.
‘‘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.
Information on where people were living five years ago also provided information on internal migration, but could be produced from other information, including the 2013 census.
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 nondisabled people, to see if disabled people were achieving social inclusion.
The questions identified people with functional limitations that had the potential to limit independent participation in society.
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.
That could be determined from work Stats NZ did to assess the accuracy, and on how it compared to the previous census. ‘‘If there’s wildly differing data, you might want to look at that particular question and how well it’s been answered,’’ Spoonley said.
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.
‘‘People walking to the front door and handing over the questionnaire and explaining what you needed to do ... then coming back and picking it up, provided a very important social incentive to complete the questionnaire and complete it accurately.’’
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.’’
Asking new questions about the standard of housing and making major changes to questions about disability and activity limitations touched on two key policy issues, Spoonley said.
Overall, he thought the census questionnaire was ‘‘pretty good’’. ‘‘I think the issue is around how accurate the online response will be, and at this point we really don’t know.’’
Consultation on questions to be included in the 2018 census started online with Statistics New Zealand staff, and with initial meetings with key agencies in late 2014.
‘‘The presence of mould is regarded as one of the easiest types of housing quality questions to answer and one of the best self-assessed measures of housing quality.’’