June 02, 2023
Census exposes Māori gap
The director of Te Ao Māori for Census 23 says the relative youth and mobility of the Māori population make it hard to count.
Atawhai Tibble says the failure of the 2018 census made it obvious how many Māori were missing from the official count, and Stats NZ has made an extra effort to draw them in this time.
Maori data collection has reached 72 percent and with help form iwi and urban Maori groups he expects that to get to 75 percent when the Census closes at the end of the month, compared with 88 percent for the mainstream.
He says more funding for Maori community service providers to help may be considered in the future.
StatsNZ is keen to learn from the exercise
“Were we working with community? Yeah. Work with them better? Probably – no doubt about it. Were we giving messages for our people? Yes. Could we improve those messages? No doubt. I think those are all the types of questions and challenges that are up for grabs, right now, in terms of,. you know as we go forward into the Review,” Mr Tibble says.