Those who missed yesterday’s midnight census deadline will still be able to fill in a form online or request the physical papers.
New Zealand’s official census day was yesterday but the country is yet to find out whether it has reached the 90 percent target for response rates.
Stats NZ said 2.6 million people had participated as of yesterday’s midnight deadline.
Those who missed the deadline will still be able to fill in a form online or request the physical papers, and those in areas affected by Cyclone Gabrielle have been given an extension until 1 June.
Stats NZ said it was aiming for this to be the most inclusive census to date, after the last one in 2018 had the lowest response rate in 50 years, at just 83.3 percent.
Minister of Statistics Deborah Russell earlier told RNZ she was confident of hitting a 90 percent completion rate for this year’s census, but would not resign if response rates fell short.
Stats NZ said it had 3500 people working on the ground and forms were even left in tramping huts to ensure the census reached as many people as possible.
Speaking to people in Auckland’s CBD yesterday, RNZ found while some people had submitted their forms well ahead of the 7 March deadline, others felt less urgency and had left it until the last day.
While everyone in New Zealand is legally required to fill out a form on census day, Win, an international student from the Philippines told RNZ he was unaware of this.
Stats NZ said one of its priority audiences for the 2023 Census was ethnic communities, including migrants and refugees.
Credit: radionz.co.nz
