Making People Count

Date: 9 July 2008

Statistics New Zealand leads and coordinates New Zealand’s official statistics system. Official statistics provide:  

• information for government, government departments, local authorities and businesses to use in making policy decisions
• measures of New Zealand’s economic, social and environmental situation for the general public, government, local authorities and businesses.

  Official Statistics are defined in the Statistics Act 1975 as statistics derived by government departments from:  

• statistical surveys
• administrative and registration records, and other documents from which statistics are, or could be, derived and published.

All the statistics collected by Statistics New Zealand are based on a defined geographic pattern. This pattern defines areas such as regional councils, territorial authorities, electorates and urban areas. The entire pattern is built from meshblocks. A meshblock is the smallest area used to collect and present statistics. The size of the meshblock depends primarily on the number of people and type of area covered. Generally meshblocks in rural areas have a population of around 60 people, while in urban areas the meshblock is roughly the size of a city block and contains approximately 110 people. The meshblock pattern changes slightly every year, but for most statistical purposes a five-year update of meshblocks to coincide with each census is generally sufficient. Meshblocks are used as building blocks, aggregating to larger areas such as area units, urban areas, territorial authorities and regional councils.