Occupied dwelling type
Sophie Davies
Public
Seen by 410
The data on occupied dwelling type classifies occupied dwellings as private or non-private (communal). Private dwellings (eg houses, units, apartments) are further classified according to whether they are separate or joined, and the number of storeys. Non-private dwellings are further classified according to their type or function (eg hotel, hospital, boarding house).
The changes to collection for 2018 mean that collectors will no longer be visiting each dwelling and determining whether it is private or non-private. Given this, it would be useful to know how important the non-private dwelling data is to customers.
Joined dwellings are classified according to whether the building they are in has one storey, two or three storeys, or four or more storeys. Better measurement of apartments in high-rise buildings is needed. It has been suggested that the top category be raised to 10 or more storeys.
There is also interest in obtaining more information on homelessness from the census. Strategies for improving the information on homelessness include using census data with administrative data to better identify boarding houses and accommodation for the homeless. Another possibility is to have a ‘no usual address’ tick box on the form.
An emerging area of interest is private dwellings in retirement villages. Currently these are not identifiable in census data because there is no separate category or indicator for these dwellings.
Our current recommendations relating to occupied dwelling type
- We recommend that occupied dwelling type is included in the 2018 Census, but that the top category for storeys is raised.,
- Other changes to improve the relevance of this data should be investigated further.
See our preliminary view of 2018 Census content (pages 48-49) for a more detailed discussion on occupied dwelling type information.
See 2013 Census information by variable for information on the occupied dwelling type variable
Guy Marriage Sat 2 May 2015 9:57PM
Hi Tina - yes, I would strongly support an inclusion of questions relating to taller buildings. 4 stories is not that tall in the current situation. What you're really trying to find out, is - are people living in a detached home, in a terrace house, or in an apartment block, aren't you? And if so, how many floors is it? Why not just structure the options like that?
Guy Marriage Sun 3 May 2015 10:37AM
There's a comment on the 2018 draft census content pdf, that says that more questions may be added, but only if there is room on the paper. But if you're putting the census online this time, then the amount of 'paper' doesn't matter. We could have as many questions as we want, surely? I just have this distinct memory from when i completed it last time, that it seemed to whip by too quickly - and I was left thinking that there was so much more they could have asked...
tina (facilitator) Mon 4 May 2015 12:11AM
Hi @guymarriage, great that you found the task of completing your 2013 Census form not too burdensome!
We still need to provide paper forms, and consider what everyone in NZ on census night can reasonably answer with good accuracy in a short time. This covers some of the considerations:
2018 Census content determination framework
Guy Marriage Mon 4 May 2015 7:49AM
I'm sure in the old days we used to spend all night on the forms - and now its just a 10 minute chore - not long enough! Give us more homework!
Kim Ollivier Sun 10 May 2015 9:23PM
It might be useful to have this information as a census variable, but does it have to be collected from the census form? Surely this can be much more accurately collected from the valuation roll and titles? This is already available but at huge cost. So maybe as a service you could arm wrestle it out of QV (a government owned organisation) and publish summary statistics? I doubt if many residents know how many stories they live in if it is more than 4!
tina (facilitator) Wed 13 May 2015 4:46AM
Hi @kimollivier.
The count of occupied dwellings is a key output variable that underpins a lot of statistics, as you've mentioned.
Arm wrestling does sound fun ... QV were privatised in 1998 according to their website :-)
It is possible that adding a category for "ten or more storeys" would reduce the quality of information collected from residents (as well as breaking the timeseries for the 4+ storeys category).
Can you clarify whether you would make use of this additional category?
Kim Ollivier Wed 13 May 2015 5:34AM
The companies office has two shareholders for QV Limited: Bill English and Todd McClay representing the crown.
http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/909791/shareholdings
So I agree that it has been 'privatised' but it is wholly owned by the government. I would have thought that there would be a way for StatisticsNZ to get reasonable access to the whole valuation roll for statistical purposes.
Kim Ollivier Wed 13 May 2015 5:41AM
The housing type would be used in forecasting urban infrastructure requirements. Sizing of utilities has to be done on the maximum possible development from planning zones. It is expensive to go back to increase the size of a sewer pipe, power cable, water mains for example. Planners want to compare zoned areas with actual use especially with multi-use zones. Is it being used for housing or offices? The basic population counts result in some strange peaks in high rise areas that need further examination to enable them to be modelled nicely.
Kim Ollivier Wed 13 May 2015 5:53AM
My bee-in-a-bonnet is that unoccupied dwellings are just as important for infrastructure planning and this is neglected in the census planning. I understand it is centered around population, but while you are counting it would be useful to count the unoccupied dwellings and publish total dwelling counts rather than just occupied totals. Does this not make statistical sense? There should be a count of known (unoccupied-on-the-night) dwellings for which the details are missing as an extra field for every dwelling statistic. After all there are at least 10% of them and in some areas up to 80%.
tina (facilitator) · Thu 30 Apr 2015 4:19AM
Hello, Tēnā koutou!
Welcome to our discussion of Occupied Dwelling Type.
I'm Tina, from Statistics New Zealand. I look forward to open and inclusive discussion over the next six weeks to understand your Housing-related information needs.