Late census may mean less funding

District health boards and schools may receive less funding as government departments give up on using 2018 census data for planning and budgeting.

Census 2018 data will not be released by Statistics New Zealand until at least August this year, with the delay forcing several ministries to use 2013 census data and population projections instead.

The initial release date had been set for October 2018, about seven months after census day on March 6.

The agency has ruled out a census recount.

Shifting to an online survey was thought to be behind a drop in responses of about 10 per cent, making the overall results unreliable and incomplete.

Statistics NZ said it would use imputation methods, such as replacing missing data with sub- stituted values, to make up for gaps in information.

Ministry of Health group manager district health board (DHB) performance and support Sam Kunowski confirmed that the ministry would use the 2013 census data and annual population projections to determine funding allocations.

‘‘The ministry is comfortable using the projections based on the 2013 census as the best information currently available.’’

Health systems expert Robin Gauld from Otago University called for a recount, as census data determined how 75 per cent of the health budget was carved up.

Many populations had changed significantly since 2013, he said. ‘‘It could have fairly profound implications for a DHB.’’

With the 2018 census data unavailable, the Ministry of Education said it was unsure how it would determine decile rankings and the equity index for early learning services – measures to allocate funding tied to the relative deprivation of school communities.