My name is Peter Himona. I work as a data analyst for the Māori Health Business Unit in the Ministry of Health. I’m looking forward to finding out what has happened to New Zealand’s population when the 2013 census figures are released by Statistics New Zealand on 3 December 2013. What is our population now, how much has it grown by, what’s happen in Wairarapa, have the Māori populations of DHBs grown, how much has my Iwi grown by – these are some of the questions I’m very excited to find out about!
Being one that works with data all the time I know that the current population estimates are based on previous census data so they are not as accurate as they could be. Getting new census data will make my work more accurate especially when calculating health statistics for Māori populations where census data is part of the calculations.
Census data covers many areas and you can check Statistics New Zealand’s plans for releasing the many areas at this link. I’m pleased that there will be allot of data for Māori released on the first day and I’ll be able to see how much my Iwi have grown by.