Quality Statement
Birthplace refers to the country where a person was born and uses the name of the country at the time of the census. Country is the current, short, or official name of a country, dependency, or other area of particular geopolitical interest.
The term is defined to include:
- independent countries recognised by the New Zealand Government
- units that are recognised geographic areas
- administrative subdivisions of the United Kingdom
- overseas dependencies, or external territories of independent countries.
High quality
Data quality processes section below has more detail on the rating.
Priority level 2
A priority level is assigned to all census concepts: priority 1, 2, or 3 (with 1 being highest and 3 being the lowest priority).
Birthplace is a priority 2 concept. Priority 2 concepts cover key subject populations that are important for policy development, evaluation, or monitoring. These concepts are given second priority in terms of quality, time, and resources across all phases of a census.
The census priority level for birthplace remains the same as 2018.
The 2023 Census: Final content report has more information on priority ratings for census concepts.
Census usually resident population count
This question applies to all people in New Zealand on census night. However, birthplace data is usually output for the census usually resident subject population.
‘Subject population’ means the people, families, households, or dwellings that the variable applies to.
Birthplace data is classified into the following categories:
Census birthplace 2023 V1.0.0 – level 1 of 3
Code | Category |
---|---|
0 | Supplementary Codes |
1 | Oceania and Antarctica |
2 | North-West Europe |
3 | Southern and Eastern Europe |
4 | North Africa and the Middle East |
5 | South-East Asia |
6 | North-East Asia |
7 | Southern and Central Asia |
8 | The Americas |
9 | Sub-Saharan Africa |
Birthplace uses a 3-level hierarchical classification with level 1 presented in the table above.
‘Supplementary codes’ include residual categories ‘Not stated', 'Inadequately described’ and ‘At sea’.
There have been no conceptual changes to the variable since the 2018 Census. However, the official country name for ‘Turkey’ has been updated to ‘Türkiye’.
Standards and classifications has more information on what classifications are, how they are reviewed, where they are stored, and how to provide feedback on them.
Birthplace is collected from the individual form (question 9 paper form).
There were changes to the question wording and format from the 2018 Census:
- The 2018 paper form birthplace question included tick boxes for eight countries including New Zealand. In 2023, both the paper and online forms have two tick-box options, New Zealand and overseas/other. The paper form tick-box list was primarily removed to allow space for the new gender question on the front page.
- If individuals selected overseas (online form), or other (question 9 paper form), then they had a write in option. In 2018, the write in option said, ‘print the name of the country’. In 2023, this was changed on both online and paper forms to ‘print the current name of the country’.
There were differences in the way a person could respond between the modes of collection (online and paper forms).
On the online form:
- as-you-type functionality helped respondents provide valid responses
- respondents were only able to provide one country of birth.
On the paper form:
- responses outside the valid range were possible
- multiple responses to the birthplace question were possible. These responses were coded to ‘Response unidentifiable’.
Data from the online forms may therefore be of higher overall quality than data from paper forms. However, processing checks and edits were in place to improve the quality of the paper forms.
Stats NZ Store House has samples for both the individual and dwelling paper forms.
Data-use outside Stats NZ:
- along with 'years since arrival in New Zealand', to develop, monitor, and evaluate settlement programmes for immigrants
- to monitor employment and immigration policies and to plan the delivery of health, education, and other social services to migrant groups
- for analysing differences in education, employment, income, and social situations of overseas-born people in New Zealand compared with those born in this country.
Data-use by Stats NZ:
- to provide information on the total size and characteristics of the overseas-born population in New Zealand at census time and the proportions from each country.
Alternative data sources were used for missing and residual census responses and responses that could not be classified or did not provide the type of information asked for. The table below shows the distribution of data sources for birthplace data.
Data sources for birthplace data, as a percentage of census usually resident population count, 2023 Census | ||
---|---|---|
Source of birthplace data | Percent | |
2023 Census response | 85.3 | |
Historical census | 2.3 | |
2018 Census | 1.7 | |
2013 Census | 0.6 | |
Admin data | 11.6 | |
Deterministic derivation | 0.0 | |
Statistical imputation | 0.0 | |
No information | 0.8 | |
Total | 100.0 | |
Note: Due to rounding, individual figures may not always sum to the stated total(s). |
Where appropriate, responses are used from admin data to replace missing or residual responses. The following admin data sources were used:
• Department of Internal Affairs (DIA)
• New Zealand Customs Service
• Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
When this was not possible, responses are used from the 2018 and 2013 Censuses.
This is a change from the 2018 Census as DIA birth records have been prioritised over historical census data as the top priority alternative source for New Zealand born people, resulting in an increase in the proportion of admin data from 6.4 percent (in 2018) to 11.6 percent (in 2023).
Editing, data sources, and imputation in the 2023 Census describes how data quality is improved by editing, and how missing and residual responses are filled with alternative data sources (admin data and historical census responses) or statistical imputation. This webpage also contains a spreadsheet that provides additional detail on the admin data sources.
Missing and residual responses represent data gaps where respondents either did not provide answers (missing responses) or provided answers that were not valid (residual responses).
Where possible, alternative data sources have been used to fill missing and residual responses in the 2023 and 2018 Censuses.
Percentage of ‘Not stated’ for the census usually resident population count:
- 2023: 0.8 percent
- 2018: 1.2 percent
- 2013: 5.9 percent
For output purposes, the residual category responses are grouped with ‘Not stated’ and are classified as ‘Not elsewhere included’.
Percentage of ‘Not elsewhere included’ for the census usually resident population count:
- 2023: 0.8 percent
- 2018: 1.2 percent
- 2013: 6.1 percent
Overall quality rating: High
Data has been evaluated to assess whether it meets quality standards and is suitable for use.
Three quality metrics contributed to the overall quality rating:
- data sources and coverage
- consistency and coherence
- accuracy of responses.
The lowest rated metric determines the overall quality rating.
Data quality assurance in the 2023 Census provides more information on the quality rating scale.
Data sources and coverage: Very high quality
The quality of all the data sources that contributed to the output for the variable were assessed. To calculate the data sources and coverage quality score for a variable, each data source is rated and multiplied by the proportion it contributes to the total output.
The rating for a valid census response is defined as 1.00. Ratings for other sources are the best estimates available of their quality relative to a census response. Each source that contributes to the output for that variable is then multiplied by the proportion it contributes to the total output. The total score then determines the metric rating according to the following range:
- 0.98–1.00 = very high
- 0.95–<0.98 = high
- 0.90–<0.95 = moderate
- 0.75–<0.90 = poor
- <0.75 = very poor.
The high proportion of data received from 2023 Census forms, alongside the high quality of the alternative data sources, resulted in a score of 0.99, leading to the quality rating of very high.
Data sources and coverage rating calculation for birthplace data, census usually resident population count, 2023 Census | |||
---|---|---|---|
Source for birthplace data | Rating | Percent | Score contribution |
2023 Census response | 1.00 | 85.28 | 0.85 |
2018 Census | 0.97 | 1.71 | 0.02 |
2013 Census | 0.95 | 0.55 | 0.01 |
Admin data | 0.99 | 11.64 | 0.12 |
No information | 0.00 | 0.81 | 0.00 |
Total | 100.00 | 0.99 | |
Note: Due to rounding, individual figures may not always sum to the stated total(s) or score contributions. |
Consistency and coherence: Very high quality
Birthplace data is highly consistent with expectations and benchmarks across all consistency checks.
There was a high degree of change in migration patterns during the period prior to the 2023 Census and was driven by:
- COVID-19 and border closures that reduced overall migration
- fewer international students during the pandemic
- mortality among early migration flows from Europe.
Accuracy of responses: High quality
Birthplace data has only minor data quality issues. The quality of coding and responses within classification categories is high. Any issues with the variable appear in a low number of cases (typically in the low hundreds).
In some cases, on the paper form, respondents provided regions (for example, the United Kingdom) instead of countries (for example, England, Northern Ireland). It was not possible to code these to the lowest level of the classification (for example, a response of ‘United Kingdom’ was coded to ‘United Kingdom not further defined’, at level 3 of the classification).
Improvements in scanning repair for paper forms reduced the number of responses needing to be sourced from alternative sources and text coding accuracy was very high.
Birthplace data can be used in a comparable manner to the 2018 and 2013 Censuses.
However, when using the data be aware that:
- where respondents provided a region, these were coded to level 2 of the classification correctly and specified as ‘not further defined’ at level 3 (for example, ‘United Kingdom not further defined’).
Comparisons to other data sources
Although surveys and sources other than the census collect birthplace data, data users are advised to familiarise themselves with the strengths and limitations of the sources before use.
Key considerations when comparing birthplace information from the 2023 Census with other sources include:
- Census is a key source of information on birthplace for small areas and small populations. Many other sources do not provide detail at this level.
- Census aims to be a national count of all individuals in a population while other surveys (such as the Household and Labour Force Survey and the General Social Survey) measuring this variable are only based on a sample of the population.
To assess how this concept aligns with the variables from the previous censuses, use the links below:
Contact our Information centre for further information about using this concept.
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