More than half a million fill in census online – Media release

1 March 2018

More than half a million New Zealanders around the country have already filled in their 2018 Census online, with official census day less than a week away, Stats NZ said today.

“We’re delighted to see that so many people have used computers, tablets or smartphones to fill in their forms,” 2018 Census general manager Denise McGregor said. “If you know where you’re going to be staying on 6 March, then you can complete the form before census day, if you prefer."

People of all ages are doing the census online.

“Since 19 February, when the online system opened, we’ve had responses from people aged up to 100 years, which is really encouraging,” Mrs McGregor said.

Stats NZ has a target of 70 percent of all census forms filled in online, but anyone can ask for a paper form, instead. More than 500,000 people have completed the census online so far. We’ve had more online response from people aged 65 and over than from people aged 15 to 25.

“We're confident that people of all ages are finding the online forms quick and easy to complete,” Mrs McGregor said.

“As more people fill in their forms online, the quality of census data is expected to be as good as or better than previous census collections.”

Everyone in the country is being sent letters with access codes, which they can use to fill in the form online. That means this time people won’t get a knock on the door about the census, as they have in the past.

“Instead, field teams are working directly with places like hotels, hospitals, and camping grounds to help people in those places get and fill in the census,” Mrs McGregor said. “There are also teams working in remote rural areas and with the homeless population.”

Most regions of New Zealand have been sent or delivered their access code letters now. However, there were some delays in Northland, West Coast, Tasman, and Gisborne areas, due to flooding and slips caused by Cyclone Gita and the challenges of reaching remote parts of New Zealand.

“We expect to have delivered codes to everyone by census day (6 March). Anyone who wants to take part by paper, but who got their access code later than other parts of New Zealand, will still be able to respond after census day.“

After 6 March, reminders will be sent and then field teams will follow up with households that have not responded.

Find out more about the census at www.census.govt.nz

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