Census response rate falls short of target
Stats NZ appears to have failed to meet its target of ensuring at least 90% of people responded to the 2023 Census.
The department said interim data indicated 88.3% of people filled in census forms last year, which was short of the former government’s target of ensuring at least 90% of people responded.
While that was an interim figure, Stats NZ spokesperson Tracy Dillamore said it was unlikely that the 90% collection response rate target for the 2023 Census would be met.
An independent statutory review of the census said response rates for Māori and Pasifika improved thanks to “increased focus and investment” but still fell short of expectations. The overall interim response rate was the second lowest after the 2018 Census when it came in at a “very poor” 85.8% according to the report.
The 2023 Census confirmed the challenges involved in achieving desired response rates were persistent and the rates that had been achieved had “come at significant cost”, it said. The review said that if the census programme tracked to plan in the remaining months, its total cost was expected to be $314 million.
Stats NZ chief executive Mark Sowden told Stuff last year that the census might be the last in its current form. He said then that it was evident the traditional model for conducting a census was “not sustainable”, whether online or on paper, because of rising costs and falling response rates and that Stats NZ could rely instead on sourcing information from other sources. Stats NZ already fills in some of the blanks in census collections from so-called “administrative data” gathered by other government agencies.
It said yesterday that would allow it to include information about 99.1% of people in its census data even though more than 10% of them had not responded to the census itself.
The administrative data does not cover all questions asked in the census. For example, last year, the census forms for the first time quizzed people on their sexual identity and orientation, which would not be information Stats NZ could gather from elsewhere.
It is theoretically compulsory for people to fill in census forms. But Stats NZ has typically only prosecuted a very small proportion of people for non-compliance, concentrating on those who disrupt the census or discourage others from participating. Stats NZ admitted last year that it would not be able to conduct any prosecutions for failing to participate in the 2023 Census as it had made an error in its application of the Data and Statistics Act.
It explained that the legislation stated that a request for data needed to specify the section of the act the request was being made under, the date people must respond by and the consequence of non-compliance, for example, facing a fine or prosecution.
But Stats NZ said it had failed to meet those requirements in full.
The first results from the census are expected on May 29, more than a year after the “census day” on March 7 last year.
Sowden focused on the overall “coverage rate” of 99.1% in a media statement accompanying the release of the review in which he described that as a “great result”.