Quality Statement
Main means of travel to education is the usual method a person used to travel the longest distance to their place of education (for example, by bicycle, school or public bus, walking, or driving).
‘Usual’ is the type of transport used most often – for example, the one used for the greatest number of days each week, month, or year. If there are two (or more) forms of transport used equally as often, the most recent form of transport was recorded.
‘Main’ is the type of transport used for the component of the journey that covers the longest distance.
Moderate quality
Data quality processes section below has more detail on the rating.
Priority level 2
A priority level is assigned to all concepts: Priority 1, 2, or 3 (with 1 being highest and 3 being the lowest priority).
Main means of travel to education 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 main means of travel to education 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 participating in study
Census usually resident population count participating in study includes individuals studying either part time or full time, at any educational institute, from early education (childcare) to tertiary education.
‘Subject population’ means the people, families, households, or dwellings that the variable applies to.
Main means of travel to education is classified into the following categories:
Census main means of travel to education V2.0.0 – level 1 of 2
Code | Category |
---|---|
001 | Study at home |
002 | Drive a car, truck or van |
003 | Passenger in a car, truck or van |
004 | Bicycle |
005 | Walk or jog |
006 | School bus |
007 | Public bus |
008 | Train |
009 | Ferry |
010 | Other |
999 | Not elsewhere included |
Main means of travel to education uses a 2-level hierarchical classification with level 1 presented in the table above.
The level 1 residual category ‘Not elsewhere included’ contains the residual categories ‘Response unidentifiable’ and ‘Not stated’.
Follow the link above the table to examine the classification in more detail.
The 2023 Census classification for main means of travel to education is consistent with that used in 2018 Census.
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.
Main means of travel to education data is collected from the individual form (question 19 paper form). It asked for the one main way that people usually travel to education. The question states that if you don’t have a usual travel method, then the respondent should select the one they used most recently. The question includes a tick-box for ‘Study at home’ as well as transport methods.
There were differences in the the way a person could respond between the modes of collection (online and paper forms).
On the online form:
- this question only appears to respondents if they responded that they were enrolled in study full-time or part-time
- multi-response was not possible – if a respondent ticked more than one box, the first response disappeared.
On the paper form:
- it was possible for respondents who were not part of the usually resident population or were not enrolled in study to respond to the main means of travel to education question
- multi-response was possible – a respondent could tick more than one main way that they travelled to education. Multi-response was treated as an invalid response and edited in processing.
Data from 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:
- In conjunction with educational institute address and data on travel to work to measure traffic flows and commuting patterns
- by transport planners to plan and manage transport, particularly in large cities where congestion is a problem
- for planning new schools and infrastructure around schools
- for monitoring investment in certain travel modes, such as investments to support walking and cycling
- to focus targeted initiatives aimed at encouraging more children and tertiary students to use public transport
- to provide information for programmes aimed at improving physical health via use of active transport
- in developing fare structures to promote public transport use amongst tertiary students
Alternative data sources were used for missing 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 main means of travel to education data.
Data sources for main means of travel to education, as a percentage of census usually resident population count participating in study, 2023 Census. | ||
---|---|---|
Source of main means of travel to education data | Percent | |
2023 Census response | 83.5 | |
Historical census | 0.0 | |
Admin data | 0.0 | |
Deterministic derivation | 0.0 | |
Statistical imputation | 16.5 | |
CANCEIS(1) donor’s response sourced from 2023 Census form | 16.5 | |
No information | <0.1 | |
Total | 100.0 | |
1. CANCEIS = imputation based on CANadian Census Edit and Imputation System Note: Due to rounding, individual figures may not always sum to the stated total(s) or score contributions. |
Statistical imputation via CANCEIS where the donor’s response is sourced from the 2023 Census form is the only alternative data source for main means of travel to education data.
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. The paper also describes the use of CANCEIS (the CANadian Census Editing and Imputation System), that is used to perform imputation.
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 participating in study
- 2023: <0.1 percent
- 2018: 0.0 percent
For output purposes, these 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 participating in study
- 2023: <0.1 percent
- 2018: 0.0 percent
Overall quality rating: Moderate
Data has been evaluated to assess whether it meets quality standards and is suitable for use.
Three quality metrics contribute 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: Moderate quality
The quality of all the data sources that contribute 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.
Statistical imputation was the only alternative data source used to replace unidentifiable and missing responses and was only moderately comparable to census forms. The proportion of data from statistical imputation contributed to the moderate quality rating of 0.90.
Data sources and coverage rating calculation for main means of transport to education data, as a percentage of census usually resident population count participating in study | |||
---|---|---|---|
Source of main means of transport to education | Rating | Percent | Score contribution |
2023 Census response | 1.00 | 83.46 | 0.83 |
CANCEIS(1) nearest neighbour imputation | 0.40 | 16.54 | 0.07 |
No information | 0.00 | <0.01 | 0.00 |
Total | 100.00 | 0.90 | |
1. CANCEIS = imputation based on CANadian Census Edit and Imputation System Note: Due to rounding, individual figures may not always sum to stated total(s) or score contributions. |
Consistency and coherence: High quality
Main means of travel to education data is consistent with expectations across nearly all consistency checks, with some minor variation from expectations or benchmarks which makes sense due to real-world change, incorporation of other sources of data, or a change in how the variable has been collected.
Methodology changes improved response capture accuracy (scanning quality and scanning repair) from paper forms improving the overall quality of the data. Checks for consistency have also improved as time series comparison to previous census data was possible in the 2023 Census. Changes in trends in main means of travel to education were consistent with trends in main means of travel to work, indicating real-world change.
Accuracy of responses: High quality
Main means of travel to education 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).
As paper forms were more widely used in the 2023 Census, the number of times an edit was used to fix errors such as multi-response also increased. This increase in the number of multi-response edits is also attributed to the fact that respondents were also more likely to tick multiple boxes for this question while trying to answer correctly (that is, if they had more than one ‘main’ way to get to their place of education).
There were also a small number of responses with inconsistencies between ‘Usual residence’ and ‘Educational institution address’ at territorial authority (TA) level for travel to education, for example, people walking a long distance from their usual residence to their educational institution.
Main means of travel to education data can be used in a comparable way to 2018.
When using this data, users should be aware that:
- any analysis of travel to education should be done by age, as patterns vary significantly by age, as do the cohort sizes.
- the travel to education question asks, ‘What is the one main way you usually travel to your place of education - that is, the one you use for the greatest distance?’, which might influence people who sometimes study at home to give information about travel to their educational institution instead.
- if multiple modes of travel are selected by the respondent, the response is treated as unidentifiable and imputed. The responses given are not accounted for in imputation and therefore the imputed response may not match any of the categories originally chosen by the respondent.
- There are a small number of people that report using transport modes that are not available in the region of their usual residence address. The categories of 'Ferry' and 'Train' are very uncommon and heavily limited in the areas where they are available. These categories should be used with care unless looking at the Auckland, Wellington, or Canterbury regions and specifically in the areas where it is available within these regions.
- the main means of travel to education question does not have a routing question that specifically asks about studying from home, in contrast to the main means of travel to work question which does have a routing question about working from home. This may have an effect on the comparability of these concepts.
- there is suspected respondent error for the school bus category for non-school aged people. This was also present in the 2018 Census data.
Comparisons to other data sources
Although surveys and sources other than the census collect travel data, data users are advised to familiarise themselves with the strengths and limitations of the sources before use.
Census aims to be a national count of the main means of travel to education for all individuals engaging in part- or full-time study. The Household Travel Survey run by the Ministry of Transport is the closest comparable source, however this survey captures all travel for a household within a 2-day period, collects multi-modal travel, and has a small sample size (around 2,000 households are surveyed annually).
To assess how this concept aligns with the variable from the previous census, use the link below:
Data about main means of travel to education was not collected in 2013.
Contact our Information centre for further information about using this concept.