April 29, 2019
Census falls short on iwi stats
Statistics New Zealand says it now has records for about 4.7 million people in the 2018 Census dataset, but its data isn’t good enough to release iwi population counts.
The council has delayed releasing census results while it added real data about real people to make up for gaps caused by a lower than expected turnout on census day.
Government Statistician Liz MacPherson says the first release is now set for September 23, including resident population; the number of general and Māori electorates; and the general and the Māori electoral population counts.
The dataset is now 58,000 people less than the best estimate for the population on March 6 last year, which means an undercount of 1.2 percent compared with a 2.4 percent undercount in the 2013 census.
She says the work done to combine census data with administrative records means data on Māori ethnicity and Māori descent is likely to be more comprehensive than what was released from the 2013 Census,
However, because other government agencies don’t comment data on iwi affiliation, Stats NZ will not release official statistical counts of iwi.
Ms MacPherson says the department is working with the Data Iwi Leaders Group, Māori interest organisations, iwi, and Māori to find real and relevant solutions to Māori data needs for Aotearoa.
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