Over 3.2 million[1] people have completed their Individual Form to date, of which 91 percent of the returned Individual Forms have been online, and nine percent have been paper forms.

This week, Stats NZ will start processing more paper forms, as those completed on or after Census Day start to arrive by mail.

Census Day is when every person in Aotearoa New Zealand is asked to complete the five-yearly census so the needs of communities across the country are met by up-to-date information and data. The census collection has been extended in areas impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle to 1 June 2023.

Census collectors have started visiting households to follow up with people who have not yet competed their census forms.

Census collectors visiting households will be able to provide the support people may need to complete their census forms.

If people do not want to wait until a census collector to visit, they can call 0800 CENSUS for help to complete their census forms. There is a range of useful information, including in different languages and accessible formats, on the census website at www.census.govt.nz.

A reminder letter will arrive in letterboxes from Tuesday, 14 March 2023.

The reminder letter has been mailed to over 490,000 households.

It takes a few days to organise a mailout of this magnitude. Some people may receive the reminder and have already completed their census forms. In this case they do not need to do anything else, and this is clearly laid out in the letter.

The reminder letter arriving this week is the first of a number planned to go out over the next few weeks.

[1] This number is updated and provided on the front page of www.census.govt.nz at 9.00am each day.

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