Producing Official Statistics for and about New Zealand’s Rainbow Population

Digby Carter, Statistics New Zealand

Stats NZ has undertaken a major update of the way we collect and produce data across the concepts of gender, sex, variations of sex characteristics and sexual identity. Updating the way we capture these concepts in some of our major collections has occurred alongside and during the redevelopment of the updated statistical standards for gender, sex and variations of sex characteristics published in 2021, and the statistical standard for sexual identity published in 2019. The recent 2023 Census is the first New Zealand census to reflect the updated statistical standards. This includes the first inclusion of a question on variations of sex characteristics in Stats NZ collections. The coverage provided by the census means it is the best source of information on smaller population groups across both concepts related to the rainbow community, but also other identity-based concepts such as ethnic and religious affiliation. We will discuss the process for updating the collection of these concepts, and design decisions required, such as collecting information in a self-completed questionnaire form, processing responses, statistical imputation for concepts requiring full population coverage, and quality assessment of these concepts under a combined census model (combination of survey responses and administrative enumeration).

Keywords: Census data, Data and Methods

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