Enabling communities throughuse of open data

Claire Stent, Michael Berry

Statistics New Zealand

What is the Census

Collects information from every person in NZ• age, sex, ethnicity, location of people and dwellings

Provides a snapshot of our society at a point in time

Why Census data?

Comprehensive

Objective

Accurate

Ongoing

Practice

Aroha has come to you looking for information about a family relative who lived in the Waikato in the 19th Century.

A teacher asks for help to interest her class in the way people lived in 19th

century New Zealand.

Someone is researching the man drought. They want to see if we always

had the same imbalance of sexes.

13

14

Population Location Work

Families and Households Income

Practice

You are approached by a community group. They want to lobby against a

liquor store in their area because of the number of children who live near the

location.

Words

In 1858 the North Island had a larger population than the South, this position being reversed at the succeeding enumerations until 1901, in which year the North Island was found to have slightly the larger total, a position which it has since considerably improved upon. The Maori war which broke out in 1860 retarded settlement in the North, while a large area of land reserved for the Maoris was until quite recently a serious hindrance to the development of this portion of the Dominion.

The average Dutch person living in New Zealand is more than twice as old as the average Tuvaluan, according to the latest census figures released by Statistics New Zealand today. For the first time, Statistics NZ has produced profiles for 143 ethnic groups recorded in the 2013 Census. The profiles give an overview of people in these ethnic groups living in New Zealand. They show that the Dutch ethnic group is one of the oldest, with a median age of 47 years. Tuvaluans are one of the youngest, with a median age of just 19 years.

When to use words

Detailed numbers would confuse your client

Words convey the answer to the question• Question is general in nature

Where to find words

Digitised collections

Most Information Releases

Census 2013 material

Infographics

http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/2013-census-infographic-nzvillage.aspx

When to use infographics

Detailed numbers would confuse your client

Pictures convey the answer to the question

English is not the client’s main language

Where to find infographics

Not a lot in early material

http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/infographics.aspx

Maps

When to use maps

Showing patterns between areas of New Zealand

Interacting to see changes

Where to find maps

Not a lot in early material

http://www.stats.govt.nz/statsmaps/home.aspx

Data Visualisations

When to use a visualisation

Seeing size visually

Interacting to see changes

Where to find visualisations

Not a lot in early material

http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/data-visualisations.aspx

Graphs

When to use a graph

Showing changes over time

Showing relationships

Where to find graphs

Not a lot in early material

Most Information Releases

Census 2013 material

Tables

When to use tables

Showing the data

Where to find tables

Digitised collections

Most Information Releases

Census 2013 material

Creating your own

Creating your own reports

Words• Tailored to user

Infographics• Find suitable images, link size of image to size of data

Graphs• Copy the data into Excel and create a chart

Putting it all together

Let’s work through some questionsFind the data and choose how to show

it.

Question

A group of mothers in Howick want to push for a Plunket nurse in their area. How would you help them make their case?

Question

A nursing student has been asked to write a paper on the health issues in Manukau with her suggested solutions.

Question

A carpenter wants to start a business renovating old homes in Wilton, Wellington.

Future of the Census

Changing needs

Changing methods of collecting data

Changing ways to disseminate data

2018 Census Key Strategic Goals

• Improve information for small and population groups• Transform collection and communication• Use more Administrative Data• Improve access to census data

Final Questions