Changes to geographic boundaries annual release

Our geographic boundaries annual release process is changing. Historically, we have published all our geographies annually, whether or not there has been any change to a boundary or classification.

From the 2024 geographic boundary annual release, we are moving to a new process where geographies will only be created and published when they change. Meshblocks will continue to be aligned to the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) cadastre (land property boundaries) and geographic features. These will be published annually.

We plan to publish our geographies according to the following review cycles:

statistical boundaries updated five-yearly, coinciding with census years
three-yearly adjustments to local electoral boundaries
five-to-six-yearly adjustments to electorate boundaries
when a gazetted local government reorganisation or name change occurs.

The planned release schedule up to 2028 is shown in the table below.

Planned boundary releases for upcoming Stats NZ geographies

Data		Census release	Annual release	Local authority release and electorates release	Annual release	Annual release	Census release and local authority release
Hierarchy	Geographies	2023	2024	2025	2026	2027	2028
Administrative	Regional council	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Administrative	Territorial authority	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Electoral	Community board	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Electoral	Constituency	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Electoral	General electoral district	-	-	Y	-	-	-
Electoral	Māori constituency	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Electoral	Māori electoral district	-	-	Y	-	-	-
Electoral	Māori ward	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Electoral	Subdivision	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Electoral	Territorial authority local board	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Electoral	Ward	Y	-	Y	-	-	Y
Statistical	Functional urban area	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Hybrid	Geographic areas table	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Statistical	Meshblock	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Statistical	Meshblock higher geographies (high definition)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Statistical	Statistical area 1	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Statistical	Statistical area 1 higher geographies	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Statistical	Statistical area 2	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Statistical	Statistical area 2 higher geographies	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Statistical	Statistical area 3	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Statistical	Statistical area 3 higher geographies	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Statistical	Urban accessibility indicator	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Statistical	Urban rural	Y	-	-	-	-	Y
Symbol	Description
Y	Planned release
-	No planned release (unless triggered by a legislative process or other unplanned change)

In addition, a geography will be published when a boundary or name change is initiated by another geography update. For example, if a territorial authority boundary is changed as part of a local government reorganisation, and the shared boundaries of statistical area 1 and 2 geographies change to accommodate this, then they will be released as new versions.

For the 2024 release onwards, the following products will be released annually on the Stats NZ Geographic Data Service:

meshblock layer - incorporates minor meshblock changes to align to the LINZ cadastre (property boundaries), road centrelines, and other geographic features that have occurred during the year
meshblock higher geography layer - contains the meshblock to higher statistical, electoral, and administrative geography relationships
geographic areas table - CSV file that contains the relationship between the current meshblock, historic meshblocks, and other geographies.

When a geography is published, the relevant annual classifications and concordances will also be released on Ariā (our classification management system).

This new process will make it easier for you to know when there has been a real change to our geographies and to determine when you choose to update them in your applications. This will not result in any geographies being removed. Instead, we will not be releasing a new version that has had no changes. For now, most people will continue to use 2023 geographies, the most recent versions, and those on which 2023 Census data will be published.

More information about changes to the annual geographic boundaries release has more detail about the changes we are making for the 2024 release.

If you have any questions about this change, or if you would like to subscribe to our geography newsletter to receive updates, please contact us at [email protected].

/Stats NZ Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.

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