Quality Statement

Label
Weekly rent paid by household - 2023 Census: Information by concept en-NZ
Definition

Weekly rent paid by household is the total amount of money spent weekly by a household on obtaining shelter in a private dwelling. This normally excludes payments for the use of furniture and utilities (such as electricity, gas, and water) and for the provision of special services such as washing or cooking.

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Overall quality rating

Moderate quality
Data quality processes section below has more detail on the rating.

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Priority level

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).
Weekly rent paid by household 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 weekly rent paid by household remains the same as for the 2018 Census.
The 2023 Census: Final content report has more information on priority ratings for census concepts.

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Subject population

Households in rented occupied private dwellings
‘Subject population’ means the people, families, household, or dwellings that the variable applies to.

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How this data is classified

Weekly rent paid by household data is classified into the following categories:

Census weekly rent paid by household V2.0.0 – level 1 of 2

Code Category
00000 No rent paid
00001 $1 weekly rent paid
00002 $2 weekly rent paid
00003 $3 weekly rent paid
... ...
08999 $8,999 weekly rent paid
09000 $9,000 weekly rent paid
09001 Over $9,000 weekly rent paid
99999 Not elsewhere included

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 weekly rent paid by household is consistent with that used in 2018 Census.

Weekly rent paid by household is usually grouped for output:

Standards and classifications has information on what classifications are, how they are reviewed, where they are stored, and how to provide feedback on them.

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Question format

Weekly rent paid by household is collected from the dwelling form (question 9 paper form).

Changes to questionnaire design have been made for the 2023 Census:

  • On the online form only, the question wording was changed to explicitly ask “and how often” rent payments were made. This change was made to help respondents understand the purpose of the payment frequency response options.
  • There were differences in the way a person could respond between the modes of collection (online and paper forms).

On the online form:

  • the rent amount question was only displayed if the respondent had selected ‘yes’ for rent indicator
  • only numeric responses for rent amount were possible
  • it was not possible to give a rent amount of $0
  • the maximum rent amount that could be given was $99,999
  • only one response could be selected for rent period.

On the paper form:

  • it was possible to give a rent amount and rent period without having answered rent indicator
  • non-numeric responses or responses including decimal points and cents could be given for rent amount
  • multiple responses to the tick boxes for rent indicator and rent period were possible.

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 data.

Stats NZ Store House has samples for both the individual and dwelling paper forms.

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Examples of how this data is used

Data-use outside Stats NZ:

  • for regional analysis, to look at housing affordability, differences between public and private sector rentals, and changes to average and median rents over time
  • in combination with household income to estimate the amount of residual income households have available for spending on other items
  • to investigate the adequacy of low-rent dwellings (in combination with sector of landlord, number of rooms, and dwelling type).

Data-use by Stats NZ:

  • in compiling the national accounts
  • in compiling the consumers price index.
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Data sources

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 weekly rent paid by household data.

Data sources for weekly rent paid by household, as a percentage of households in rented occupied private dwellings, 2023 Census
Source of weekly rent paid by household data Percent
2023 Census response 80.0
Historical census 0.0
Admin data 11.8
Deterministic derivation 0.0
Statistical imputation 7.1
 CANCEIS(1) donor's response sourced from 2023 Census form 7.0
 CANCEIS donor's response sourced from admin data 0.1
No information 1.1
Total 100.0
1. CANCEIS = imputation based on the CANadian Census Edit and Imputation System
Note: Due to rounding, individual figures may not always sum to the stated total(s) or score contributions.

The following admin data sources were used:

  • Kāinga Ora
  • Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment.

Statistical imputation was used for most records that remained coded to ‘Not stated’ or other residual categories.

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) which is used to perform imputation. This webpage also contains a spreadsheet that provides additional detail on the admin data sources.

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Missing and residual responses

Missing and residual responses represent data gaps where respondents 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 households in rented private occupied dwellings:

  • 2023: 1.1 percent
  • 2018: 0.6 percent
  • 2013: 3.6 percent

The 2018 Census percentage for ‘Not stated’ differs for the value previously published in the 2018 information by variable. The percentage presented above is for ‘Not stated’ category whereas the previously published value is the percentage of responses with ‘No information’ as a data source.

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 households in rented private occupied dwellings:

  • 2023: 1.1 percent
  • 2018: 1.1 percent
  • 2013: 3.7 percent
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Data quality processes

Overall quality rating: Moderate
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 response.

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 have been assessed. To calculate a 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:

  • 0.98–100 = very high
  • 0.95–<0.98 = high
  • 0.90–<0.95 = moderate
  • 0.75–<0.90 = poor
  • <0.75 = very poor.

The relatively high proportion of non-response, combined with a slight decrease in the admin data quality rating from 2018 and an increase in the proportion of ‘No information’, has resulted in a total score of 0.94, leading to a quality rating of moderate.

Data sources and coverage calculation for weekly rent paid by household data, for households in rented occupied private dwellings, 2023 Census
Source of weekly rent paid by household data Rating Percent Score Contribution
2023 Census response 1.00 79.99 0.80
Admin data 0.84 11.76 0.10
CANCEIS(1) nearest neighbour imputation 0.60 7.14 0.04
No information 0.00 1.11 0.00
Total 100.00 0.94
1. CANCEIS = imputation based on the CANadian Census Edit and Imputation System.
Note: Due to rounding, individual figures may not always sum to the stated total(s) or score contributions.

Consistency and coherence: High quality
Weekly rent paid by household data is consistent with expectations across nearly all consistency checks, with some minor variation at lower levels of geography which make sense due to real-world change, incorporation of other sources of data, or a change in how the variable has been collected.

Improvements to the question may have reduced non-response and improved data quality, and some variation from expectations reflects real-world changes of increased weekly rent due to higher costs and inflation.

Accuracy of responses: Moderate quality
Weekly rent paid by household data has various data quality issues involving several categories or aspects of the data, or entire level of a hierarchical classification. The data quality issues could include problems with the classification or coding of data, such as vague responses resulting in coding issues, or responses that cannot be coded to a specific (non-residual) category, thereby reducing the amount of useful, meaningful data available for analysis.

The data quality issues are related to processing issues (including scanning mis-recognition) and respondent misinterpretation. There may be some incorrect and unlikely high rent amounts remaining in the data.

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Recommendations for use and further information

It is recommended that the weekly rent paid by household data can be used in a comparable manner to the 2018 and 2013 Censuses.

When using this data, users should be aware that:

  • while there are known issues for scanning and respondent error, these are common each census
  • the data may still contain some incorrect high rent amounts.

Comparisons to other data sources
Although there are surveys and sources other than the census that collect weekly rent paid by household 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 all individuals in a population while other surveys (such as the Household Economic Survey) measuring this variable are only based on a sample of the population.
  • Average weekly rent paid by household is commonly produced either as the arithmetic mean or median. Other data sources may produce average weekly rent paid by household using a different average, such as the geometric mean (for example, Local Housing Statistics' dashboard by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development). Data users are advised to use similar measures for averages when comparing average weekly rent from different data sources, and to familiarise themselves with the strengths and limitations of different measures for averages.
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Information by variables from previous censuses

To assess how this concept aligns with the variables from the previous census, use the links below:

Contact our Information centre for further information about using this concept.

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Information

History

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Revision Date Responsibility Rationale
26 26/09/2024 10:00:58 AM