Explore the fabric of our communities with new online tool

Launched today, the Statistics New Zealand Place Summaries Web Tool allows anyone interested in specific census data about New Zealand’s communities to explore information including the population and number of dwellings in an area.

Using data from the 2018 Census, the web tool allows users to understand their communities in a different way. “The website tool lets anyone interested in census data access information about the communities they live, work, and play in, on both a large and small scale,” Statistics New Zealand social and population insights general manager Jason Attewell said. 

The web tool breaks down place summaries into 26 topics, grouped into seven themes including housing, transport and population and dwellings.

“You can look at New Zealand nationally or break the country down into regions, districts (or local boards for Auckland), and small areas known as SA2s, the second level of statistical areas used by Stats New Zealand. The data for each geographical area can be quickly compared with the area above it in the hierarchy. For example, data for Hobsonville Point (an SA2) can be easily compared with data for Auckland, and data for Auckland can easily be compared with data for New Zealand.”

According to the tool, there were 1,664,313 occupied dwellings counted in the 2018 Census, along with 191,649 unoccupied dwellings and 15,972 dwellings under construction - a total of 1.8 million dwellings.

Specific information about suburbs and regions provides a rare insight into the growth of certain areas, and the way populations have moved in response to events including the Christchurch earthquakes. In the five years between the 2013 and 2018 censuses, for example, Hobsonville Point in Auckland’s north-west has gone from a nearly empty air base to a thriving mixed-use area. Similarly, the population of wider Christchurch had increased by nearly 30,000 people, with the highest growth areas to the north and west of the city.

Explore the Place Summaries Tool. 

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