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Samantha Early | samantha@mainlandpress.co.nz
WHILE many Cantabrians are focused on planning their Christmas holidays, organisers of next year’s census are planning to make sure everyone in Canterbury counts. The results of the March 2013 census should provide certainty at last for organisations who have been working with ‘best guess’ estimates of population movements following the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011. The nationwide survey planned for March 2011 was cancelled because of the February 22, 2011 earthquake. Census community engagement manager Nikki Hawkey said it would be the most important one in New Zealand’s recent history. The last census was in 2006 and Mrs Hawkey said people had moved out of, in to and around the Canterbury region since the earthquakes. “Some areas have suffered population loss; others are growing rapidly so this gives us certainty. It gives us an understanding of how much our community has changed.” Census data is used directly or indirectly by everyone, from governments planning how to spend billions of dollars on health, education, transport and infrastructure, to businesses and community groups. “It will inform the [Canterbury] rebuild so we need people to participate so we get access to the funding that we deserve here.” Census area manager for Christchurch East and Central Tom Scollard said at the moment
organisations were doing a lot of best guessing about where people had moved to. Statistics New Zealand has been working to ensure Cantabrians take part, including surveying earthquake-affected residents to see which questions caused them difficulty and why. “Some people were confused as to how to answer the questions accurately, some people responded quite emotionally because it asks you where you normally live,” Mrs Hawkey said. As a result, a new collection area has been created for the most earthquake affected areas. “We are very aware that people have gone through a stressful last two years. Our collectors will be trained well and they will be local people doing local jobs,” Mr Scollard said. He said collectors were still required to visit every dwelling they could physically get to, even in the residential red zone. Burwood Pegasus Community Board chairwoman Linda Stewart said the results may surprise those who thought the eastern suburbs were emptying out. “I don’t see a great migration away from the east at all. I think overall if you look at it in five years’ time we may have lost a total of 1000 houses. That’s a lot better than the 5500-odd we were thinking. “It will show where people have moved to and where they were but it’s also showing what people want. Big job: Census community engagement manager Nikki Hawkey and area manager for If they want to come back it will Christchurch East and Central Tom Scollard amongst a small section of the survey forms for Christchurch residents. Photo: Samantha Early show that.”
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• The census is the official count of how many people and dwellings there are in New Zealand. By law, Statistics NZ must hold a census once every five years and everyone must fill in a form. • The March 8, 2011 Census was called off following the February 22 earthquake in Christchurch. • New Zealand’s last census was taken on March 7, 2006. At the time the country had a population of 4,027,947 while Christchurch city had 348,435 residents. • Censuses have been conducted since antiquity. Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Chinese and Indian civilizations are all known to have carried out censuses. • Censuses are mentioned several times in the Bible – and there’s a Christmas connection. The Gospel of Luke records Jesus as having been born during a census. • In the 15th century, the Inca empire had a unique way to record census information. The Incas did not have any written language but recorded information collected during censuses and other numeric information as well as non-numeric data on quipus strings from llama or alpaca hair or cotton cords with numeric and other values encoded by knots.
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