North Shore Times (New Zealand)
Revamp of census for online-first
Gone are the days of door-knockers toting paper forms come census day.
This year, Statistics New Zealand is taking a ‘‘digital-first’’ approach, in the hopes at least 70 per cent of New Zealanders will take part online.
While this isn’t the first time that there has been an online option, it’s the first time Stats NZ is prioritising online participation.
Instead of people delivering paper forms to every household and coming back after census day to collect them, Stats NZ will be sending or delivering online access codes to each household.
They will only be following up with the households that haven’t taken part after census day.
Paper forms will still be available for those who prefer them.
Census 2018 general manager Denise McGregor said the move to digital-first was necessary as the old census model was becoming increasingly unsustainable over time.
The cost increases as the population grows and it is becoming harder to get people to complete a census, she said.
‘‘We need to make it as easy and quick as possible.’’
The move to a digital-first census meant building a new system: one designed to be secure, resilient and able to cope with high volumes of attention and information.
Personal data was encrypted from the minute it left people’s browsers until it arrived at Stats NZ, McGregor said.
Only when it reached Stats NZ could it be decoded.
SeniorNet executive officer Grant Sidaway said anything ‘‘new’’ that directed people online would be a challenge for some.
‘‘Older people may still prefer to have people knocking on their doors for the census, but I would give every encouragement to people of whatever age to do it online,’’ Sidaway said.
* If you do not wish to take part online, you can contact 0800 CENSUS (0800 236 787) once your household access code has arrived to request paper forms. These forms will then be posted to you to fill out.