Census 2023 NZ

2023 - 3 - 3

Post cover — Image courtesy of "Stuff.co.nz"

Census 2023: Intersex New Zealanders encouraged to tick the box (Stuff.co.nz)

There are at least 117000 people with intersex variations in Aotearoa, but to date, there is no national data on the population.

“If you know of any intersex person, any person with a variation of sex characteristics, try and encourage them to tick that box. “That’s a pretty amazing outcome and that’s even before you start to think what the direct benefit the new data will bring.” “The data that we put out there, it’s about groups, it’s about communities; it’s never about individuals,” said Broughton. “When it comes into the organisation, all of that census data is held on a secure data storage server that’s gone through lots of certification and accreditation.” “If we don’t have the numbers, we don’t have those resources and those services.” “We want to assure them that we have really tight controls in place to protect their data but also to protect their identity.” The Privacy Act 2020 and the Data and Statistics Act 2022 serve to protect the data for instance, he says. Intersex Aotearoa anticipates that the recording of Aotearoa’s intersex population will be slow, as many intersex people were “probably not aware that they even have a variation of sex characteristics”, Sterling said. It’s a way to “align our ways of living so that we are no longer oppressed by that data and those statistics that doesn’t get us to the decision-making table.” “The other is the issue of shame, stigma from society and being hidden for so long,” Sterling said. “[It’s] been a struggle for a long time to be acknowledged and recognised as a community and a part of society.” “It leads to equity among funding that we may be looking [for] to increase capability, awareness and education cross the intersex community.”

Be warned: mistakes on census forms can't be corrected or updated (Stuff.co.nz)

'Now my iwi are short two humans. Not world-ending exactly, but very annoying,' says Nelson dentist.

Chances are they don't even get to their part of the page.” “It's after about two-thirds of a page of sort of internet, online gobbledegook. Stats NZ noted people are advised before they start the survey and on each page that “once a completed form” has been submitted to Stats it cannot be viewed or edited by anyone in their household. * “I suspect a number of people would 'pre-fill' portions of the survey in the same manner that they would for many online surveys, most of which allow the user to save it part way and come back to it. That is especially as Stats NZ has asked people to fill out the electronic form ahead of “census day” on Tuesday, when they might have unexpected guests or not be where they expected to be on the day, he said.

Census 2023: Questions the Census won't ask you (but should) (New Zealand Herald)

Stats NZ and the Government are collecting important information about the population — but there are some questions they're not asking and should. Okay, maybe ...

Harry Styles, if you’re reading this, you can (and should) answer these [as well as the Census](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/sign-of-the-times-hilarious-twitter-exchange-reveals-superstar-harry-styles-will-have-to-partake-in-new-zealands-2023-census/7CTIO3LJRBBBPBVSV2ZVAHWG7A/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=nzh_fb&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1W7hBM1nkGKXrkXO0nfir_eC6clVKVy6fSH2xXlZyDLi794gOpKA8Zw8E#Echobox=1677191924). Stats NZ and the Government are collecting important information about the population — but there are some questions they’re not asking and should.

Why I take the population census seriously (Interest.co.nz)

Economist Brian Easton explains why the Census is important and how it will guide public policy. He reminds us of the problems in some prior censuses and ...

The ED is funded based on the census data and so it is grossly underfunded, to the detriment ironically of the local population. Gender refers to your social and personal identity as a male, female, or another gender or genders that may be non-binary...Sex at birth refers to the sex that was recorded for you when you were born, for example on your birth certificate. One of my grumbles about the census is that while you are encouraged to complete your census form online – I can see the advantage to Statistics New Zealand of doing that – you can’t get a copy of the results for your own records. But if we assume everything is due to racism when it may be due to historical injustice and present day poverty we may come up with the wrong solutions. Maori are slightly more likely to be poor than the average member of society, but they're much more likely to be afflicted by heart disease and some cancers. I add that Statistics New Zealand and users of the census are very happy for those who are not confident with computers to fill in the form and post it or hand it to their census enumerator. The population census is the only reasonably comprehensive source that a social scientist has. There are items in the census which are not available anywhere else, as in the case of the question about religion. One complication is that while one cannot change the facts of one’s descent (one may learn more about them), people change their subjective ethnicity. In any case, a survey cannot go into the detail of a census. Perhaps once a month I am working on something, consult the 2018 data base and say ‘damn’ because it is not there or I cannot trust its figures. The low coverage of the 2018 Population Census and Dwellings has generated all sorts of difficulties.

'Data is taonga': 2023 Census critical for Māori (Re: news)

When the Government decides how much money to spend each year, its decisions are informed by data from the Stats NZ Census. The Census collects detailed ...

We have experiences and scars and so you put all these things together, and when someone shows up to collect your data, are you going to fill in the form? When kaupapa Māori organisations negotiate with the Crown, they use Census data in their tenders for health and social contracts. But it’s fair to say the Crown’s ability to engage with Māori hasn’t always been flash,” he says. This year’s Census takes place on March 7. “For a long time in this country’s history it was not a good thing to be Māori. This content was sponsored by Statistics NZ. “We need to count people to enable us to provide things like hospital beds and classrooms. The Data and Statistics Act passed in 2022 recognises the Crown’s obligation to consider and provide for Māori interests in data, and this year’s Census programme contains an acknowledgement of the principles of Te Tiriti. If you step back and acknowledge that power, you can see it’s quite precious. In 2019, Stats NZ and the Data Iwi Leaders Group of the National Iwi Chairs Forum signed the Mana Ōrite relationship agreement to address previous poor Census engagement in Māori communities, and to use data in a way that benefits Māori. It’s a taonga. In politics, the Māori electorates are calculated according to the number of people who identified as Māori at the Census.

Census ethnicity question important for addressing institutional ... (Stuff.co.nz)

Tze Ming Mok says that while ethnic enumeration has racist roots, it's the only way racial disparities can be addressed.

if you go down enough levels, all the data is there. “The Census provides an important source of ethnicity data for small areas and small ethnic groups. Mason says that ethnicity data is used to compile a wide range of demographic estimates and projections, and to derive measures for monitoring the wellbeing of ethnic groups and equity outcomes. Census New Zealand defines ethnicity as the ethnic group or groups a person identifies with and is a measure of cultural affiliation in contrast to race, ancestry, nationality or citizenship. “Tick box responses and written responses are treated equally in the coding of ethnicity responses for the census,” said Mason. “But the reason that exists is because it’s either you have a MELAA category or you have just an ‘other’ category with Middle Eastern, Latin American and African people lumped in with everyone who wrote ‘New Zealander’ [as their ethnic group].” Mok believes that the “New Zealand European” category is named as such as a direct continuation of the term “European” that the British colonial government used in its original 19th century censuses. There has been contention online over the way the “New Zealand European” category is named and the lumping of “other” ethnic groups. “This is standard across census questions in order to enable high quality responses, efficient processing of responses and minimise the respondent burden for these groups.” “So you can plan for services that are appropriate to the needs of different people as different people may have different cultural and social needs depending on their cultural, social, ethnic background. “Ironically, the only way you can actually combat social and institutional racism and inequality is if you know how many people there are of different ethnic groups, how much they’re getting paid and if that’s fair or not, for example”. While the questions about ethnic group identity might be “slightly strange and uncomfortable”, researcher Tze Ming Mok says that it’s important to count ourselves in order to “assess the extent of institutional and social racism through the inequality of ethnic outcomes that we actually have in society”.