The population for the AES 2011 financial year was 443,298 units, consisting of:

• 298,207 (67.3 percent) sourced from IR10 information
• 17,116 (3.9 percent) sourced from the postal survey
• 4,661 (1.1 percent) sourced from other government data
• 487 units (0.1 percent) sourced from Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment data
• 122,827 (27.7 percent) non-sample units.

In the AES 2011, 17,116 postal survey unit responses were weighted to represent the 122,827 non-sample units. The corporate response rate required for the postal collection is set at 85 percent of the industry's goods and services tax (GST) sales. The response rate in 2011 was 89 percent, the same as in 2010.