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Whānau irawhiti and takatāpui are welcoming Stats NZ's decision to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity in the 2023 Census.
The change follows feedback from trans and non-binary people in the post-census Counting Ourselves survey that they felt excluded by the 2018 Census.
Spokesperson Jack Byrne says the change will make the human rights issues faced by the LGBTQI+ communities more visible to the wider population.
"If you can imagine a whakawahine who has lived as a woman for a long, long time looking at that question. Some said 'Am I meant to put down what it says on my birth certificate? People didn't know what to put. They were offended by the question and many didn't answer it," he says.
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