Usual residence
Sophie Davies
Public
Seen by 323
Usual residence is the address where a person considers themselves to usually live. It provides a count of all people who usually live in, and were present in New Zealand on census night. It is the only means of distinguishing between those usually resident in New Zealand and overseas visitors, and between those usually living in an area or just there on census night.
Our current recommendations relating to usual residence
The collection of information on usual residence is required by law under the Statistics Act 1975, so this information must be collected in the census.
No change is recommended for usual residence.
See our preliminary view of 2018 Census content (page 18) for a more detailed discussion on usual residence information.
See 2013 Census information by variable for information on the usual residence variable.
Mike Berry · Mon 15 Jun 2015 3:27AM
Hi @alexandragates in response to your query - yes we collect information on different dwelling types such as private dwelling in a motor camp, mobile dwelling not in a motor camp, improvised dwellings or shelter (cars, garages, shacks etc.) and roofless or rough sleeper. People in these situations are still required to fill in the census to ensure we get the best population count possible and assign them to a meshblock (smallest geographic unit). There is currently more work being done on how best to capture these people.