These maps show ‘population share’ in each territorial authority area by major ethnic group for the Census years 2006, 2013 and 2018. Because Statistics New Zealand follows the approach of counting people into each major ethnic group they specify, the sum of total responses is somewhat greater than the population headcount. Here we have used summed total responses in order to generate meaningful percentages (i.e. percentages sum to 100%). In 2006, summed total responses for New Zealand (4,261,071) exceeded the headcount of those who stated their ethnic group (3,860,163) by 10.4%. In 2013 and 2018 the ‘ethnic overcount’ was respectively 10.9% and 12.6%. Stated differently, had we used the ‘ethnicity-stated’ headcount as the denominator, the national shares for each ethnic group would have summed to 110.4%, 110.9% and 112.6% respectively. The data in these maps thus show the share of total responses in each territorial authority area accounted for by each ethnic group, as a proxy for population share.
*‘Other Ethnicity’ is primarily comprised of people who stated ‘New Zealander’ as opposed to an ethnic group. In 2006 New Zealander accounted for 99% of ‘Other’; in 2008, 97%, and in 2018, 78%. However, the proportions categorised as ‘Other’ at each Census have been vastly different: 10.1% in 2006, but just 1.5% in 2013 and 1.1% in 2018 – see for a table.