Tenure of household 2013 Census (information about this variable and its quality)

##Related variables

• Tenure holder – provides information on whether individuals own or partly own the dwelling they usually live in.

##Where the data comes from

This variable is derived from question 7 (Dwelling held in family trust), question 8 (Mortgage payments made by family trust), question 9 (Ownership of dwelling), question 11 (Rent indicator), question 12 (Rent paid), and question 13 (Mortgage payments) on the dwelling form.

##How this data is classified

1 Dwelling owned or partly owned

10 Dwelling owned or partly owned, mortgage arrangements not further defined

11 Dwelling owned or partly owned, mortgage payments made

12 Dwelling owned or partly owned, mortgage payments not made

2 Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust

20 Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust, rental arrangements not further defined

21 Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust, rent payments made

22 Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust, rent payments not made

3 Dwelling held in a family trust

30 Dwelling held in a family trust, mortgage arrangements not further defined

31 Dwelling held in a family trust, mortgage payments made

32 Dwelling held in a family trust, mortgage payments not made

7 Response unidentifiable

77 Response unidentifiable

9 Not stated

99 Not stated

Home ownership figures given in census publications may be presented as the percentage of households who owned their home or held it in a family trust, or separate figures may be given for the percentage who owned their home and the percentage who held their home in a family trust.

'Dwelling owned or partly owned' includes households who purchased a dwelling under unit title, stratum title, licence to occupy or composite leasehold, eg residents occupying self-care units in a retirement complex.

'Mortgage payments made' includes households who were on a short-term mortgage holiday.

'Mortgage arrangements not further defined' means that the household did not indicate whether they were making mortgage payments.

Renting is defined as those households who did not own their home or have it in a family trust and were paying rent. This is households in the 'Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust, rent payments made' category (category 21). It includes households who were occupying a dwelling under a rent-to-buy agreement.

The broader 'Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust' category (category 2) includes households who were occupying their home rent-free (category 22) and households who did not indicate whether they were paying rent or not (category 20) as well as households who were renting their home.

'Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust, rent payments not made' includes situations where people were provided with rent-free housing as part of their employment (eg farm workers or managers, motel or hotel workers) and situations where people were living rent-free in housing provided by family or friends.

'Dwelling held in a family trust, mortgage payments made' includes situations in which mortgage payments were made by the trust and situations in which mortgage payments were made directly by the household.

'Not stated' includes households for which all usual residents were absent on census night as well as households that did not answer the tenure questions.

For further information about this classification, refer to the:

• 2013 Census data dictionary
• Statistical standard for tenure of household.

For background information on classifications and standards, refer to the Classifications and related statistical standards page.

##Subject population

The subject population for this variable is households in private occupied dwellings.

There must be at least one person usually living in a private dwelling for it to be defined as containing a household. If all the people in a private dwelling were visitors at that dwelling, it did not contain a household and they have been excluded from this data.

This data relates to households in private dwellings that were occupied at the time of the census. It does not include unoccupied dwellings.

The subject population is the people, families, households, or dwellings to whom the variable applies.

##Non-response and data that could not be classified

Non-response

'Non-response' is when an individual gives no response at all to a census question that was relevant to them. The non-response rate is the percentage of the subject population that was coded to 'not stated'.

• Non-response rate for 2013: 5.1 percent, of which 4.0 percent were substitute records.
• Non-response rate for 2006: 4.7 percent, of which 2.8 percent were substitute records.
• Non-response rate for 2001: 3.7 percent, of which 2.5 percent were substitute records.

Not elsewhere included

Non-response and responses that could not be classified or did not provide the type of information asked for are usually grouped together and called 'Not elsewhere included'

• 6.3 percent of the subject population was coded to 'Not elsewhere included' in 2013, compared with 6.2 percent in 2006 and 4.7 percent in 2001.

For more information on non-response and substitute records, refer to the 2013 Census data user guide.

##How this data is used

Data from this variable is used to:

• monitor trends and changes in home ownership rates at the household level
• develop the New Zealand deprivation index
• measure trends and changes in housing affordability
• formulate and monitor housing policy
• assess current and future housing needs.

##Data quality processes

All census data was checked thoroughly during processing and evaluation, to ensure that it met quality standards and is suitable for use. These quality checks included edits.

All data must meet minimum quality standards to make it suitable for use.

Quality level

A quality level is assigned to all census variables: foremost, defining, or supplementary.

Tenure of household is a defining variable. Defining variables cover key subject populations that are important for policy development, evaluation, or monitoring. These variables are given second priority in terms of quality, time, and resources across all phases of a census.

Mode of collection impacts – online form compared with paper form

The online forms had built-in editing functionality that directed respondents to the appropriate questions and ensured that their responses were valid. As a result of this, data from online forms may be of higher overall quality than data from paper forms. The significance of this will depend on the particular type of analysis being done. There will always be a mode effect but this cannot be measured. Statistics NZ design and test to minimise the effects of mode for all questions.

There were differences between how the forms were completed online and on paper for this variable:

• The online form allowed only one response to be selected for each question from which tenure of household was derived. If a further response was selected, the response given previously disappeared. Multiple responses to these questions were possible when forms were completed on paper.
• On the online form, the rent amount box was enabled only if a response of 'Yes' had been given to the rent indicator question, and it was only possible to give a numerical answer. When answering forms on paper, it was possible to give a rent amount without having marked the 'Yes' box in the rent indicator question, and it was possible to give a non-numerical answer.
• On the online form, questions that did not apply to a respondent were greyed out and could not be answered, depending on the respondent's answers to previous questions. For example, the question about paying rent was greyed out if there was a 'Yes' answer to owning the dwelling. The text of the greyed-out questions indicated why these questions were not required, eg "Based on your response to question 9, you do not need to answer questions 10 to 12".
• When paper forms were used, it was possible to give inconsistent responses to the questions from which tenure of household was derived.

##Quality assessment of data and data quality issues for this variable

Overall quality assessment

Moderate: fit for use – with some data quality issues to be aware of, to High: fit for use – with minor data quality issues only. 2013 Census variable quality rating scale gives more detail.

Issues to note

• Non-response rate for 2013: 5.1 percent, of which 4.0 percent were substitute records.
• The number of households that held their dwelling in a trust is likely to be an under-count. It is possible that some of these households are in the 'Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust, rent payments not made' or 'Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust, rental arrangements not further defined' categories.
• There is an under-count of about 18 percent for households renting compared to Housing New Zealand administrative data. This will have affected the number of households in the renting category (ie 'Dwelling not owned and not held in a family trust, rent payments made'). It is likely to result in some bias in the data when detailed analysis of households that were renting is done.
• Data quality for some regions is higher than for other regions due to regional variation in response rates. The highest non-response rate was 9.2 percent and the lowest non-response rate was 4.6 percent. Data quality is highest for the Nelson, Tasman, Canterbury, and Wellington regions and lower for the Northland, West Coast, Gisborne, and Bay of Plenty regions.

##Comparing this data with previous census data

This data is highly comparable with the 2006 Census data. Changes in the data over this time period can generally be interpreted as real changes. There may be a small component of change over time that is due to minor changes in the collection, definition, or classification of the data.

Improvement in identifying renting households in 2013 may affect the comparability of 2013 with 2006 data.

This data is broadly comparable with the 2001 Census data. Changes in the data over this time period may be partly due to changes in the collection, definition, or classification of the data rather than to real change alone.

Family trust information was first collected in 2006.

The 2006 and 2013 data is only broadly comparable with 2001 data because there were no family trust categories in 2001 and the 2001 help notes instructed respondents to mark 'No' to the ownership question if the dwelling was in a family trust. In the 2001 data, some households whose dwelling was in a family trust may be in the owned categories and others may be in the not owned categories – depending on respondents' interpretations of whether this was ownership or not and whether they had read the help notes.

##Comparing this data with data from other sources

Census is the only information source that provides comprehensive information for small areas and small populations. However alternative sources of information about this subject are available:

• New Zealand General Social Survey (NZGSS)
• Household Economic Survey (HES)
• National Dwelling and Household Estimates

Data from these alternative sources may show differences from census data for several reasons. These could be due to differences in scope, coverage, non-response rates, data being collected at different periods of time, alternative sources being sample surveys and as such subject to sampling errors, or differences in question wordings and method of delivery (self-administered versus interviewer-administered). Data users are advised to familiarise themselves with the strengths and limitations of individual data sources before comparing with census data.

Census data is used as the baseline for population estimates so the accuracy of the estimates tends to deteriorate with time elapsed after the census date.

##Further information about this data

All percentages in census publications have been calculated using 'Total stated' as the denominator.

When using this data, be aware of the following:

• Tenure of household data does not always represent the situation of all members of a household because this data is at the household level, not the family or individual level. For example, a household may consist of two families, only one of whom owns the dwelling they all live in; or a household may consist of several unrelated people, only one of whom owns the dwelling they live in.
• It is difficult to compare tenure of household data with tenure holder data, because tenure of household data is at the household level and tenure holder data is at the individual level.

Contact our Information Centre for further information about using this variable.