Glossary
Abbreviations: The party abbreviations for 2008 are: Aotearoa NZ Youth Party (ANYIPP), ACT New Zealand (ACT), Alliance (ALL), Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP), Communist League (CL), Democrats for Social Credit (NZDSC), Direct Democracy Party (DDP), Family Party (FAM), Green Party (GP), Hapu Party (HP), Human Rights Party (HR), Independent (IND), Jim Anderton's Progressive (JAP), Kiwi Party (KIWI), Labour Party (LAB), Libertarianz (LIB), McGillicuddy Serious Party (McG), Māori Party (MAOR), National Party (NAT), New Zealand First Party (NZF), New Zealand Pacific Party (NZPP), New Zealand Representative Party (NZRP), No Commercial Airport at Whenuapai Airbase (NCAWAP), NZ Economic Euthenics (NZEE), RAM – Residents Action Movement (RAM), Restore All Things in Christ (RATC), The Bill and Ben Party (BB), The Republic of NZ Party (RONZP), United Future (UFNZ), Workers Party (WP).
-: The party abbreviations for 2005 are: 99 MP Party (99MP), ACT New Zealand (ACT), Alliance (ALL), Anti-Capitalist Alliance (ACA), Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party (ALCP), Christian Heritage NZ (CH), Communist League (CL), Democrats for Social Credit (DEM), Destiny New Zealand (DEST), Direct Democracy Party (DDP), Equal Values Party (EVP), Green Party (GRE), Human Rights (HR), Independent (IND), Jim Anderton's Progressive (JAP), Labour Party (LAB), Libertarianz (LIB), Māori Party (MP), National Party (NAT), New Zealand First Party (NZF), NZ Economic Euthenics (NZEE), NZ Family Rights Protection Party (NZFRP), NZ Republicans Party (NZREP), OneNZ Party (OneNZ), Rangitikei First (RF), Restore All Things in Christ (RATIC), The Republic of NZ Party (REP), United Future New Zealand (UF).
The party abbreviations for 2002 are: ACT (ACT), Alliance (ALL), Anti-Capitalist Alliance (ACA), Aotearoa NZ Youth (ANZY), Aroha Ngia Tatou (ANT), Beneficiaries (BEN), Christian Heritage (CH), Communist League (CL), Green Party (GRE), Human Rights (HR), Independent (IND), Labour Party (LAB), Legalise Cannabis (LC), Libertarianz (LIB), MAI (MAI), Mana Maori (MM), Maori Party (MP), National Party (NAT), New Generation (NG), Nga Iwi Morehu (NIM), NMP (NMP), NZ Economic Euthenics (NZEE), NZ Equal Rights (NZER), NZ First (NZF), OneNZ Party (1NZ), Outdoor Rec. NZ (ORNZ), P.C.P Coalition (PCPC), Progressive Coalition (PC), Project Hope (PH), Quality of Life (QOL,) Reform's Tahi (RT), United Future (UF).
Area Units: Area Units are aggregations of meshblocks. They are non-administrative areas intermediate between meshblocks and territorial authorities. Area units of main or secondary urban areas generally coincide with suburbs or parts thereof. Area units within urban areas normally contain 3,000-5,000 population though this can vary due to such things as industrial areas, port areas, rural areas and so on within the urban area boundaries. In rural areas, the straddling of some territorial authorities over regional boundaries has resulted in a number of area units having only 2 or 3 meshblocks and a very low population count. (Statistics New Zealand).
Average: The sum of a list of numbers, divided by the total number of numbers in the list. Also called arithmetic mean.
Census usually resident population: Population as calculated on census night, the latest census figures being as at March 2006. The census usually resident population count is all people counted in New Zealand on census night excluding overseas visitors and New Zealand residents temporarily overseas.
Employment: Full-time employment is equal to people working 30 or more hours per week. Part-time employment is equal to people working 1-29 hours per week.
General electoral population: Total ordinarily resident population as shown in the census of population and dwellings, with the exception of the Māori electoral population.
Income: Includes income from all sources, including not only wages and salaries, but also other sources such as benefits, interest payments etc. Income figures given are for before tax (gross) income.
Index of Socioeconomic Deprivation: The Index of Deprivation (a number from 1 to 10) is high for an area with a high degree of socioeconomic "deprivation", and is low for an affluent or less needy area. In New Zealand as a whole, small areas are evenly divided among the ten deciles. The index is calculated from such factors as proportions of people dependent on benefits, unemployed, and living in a single-parent family, and proportions of households with income below a certain threshold, with no access to a telephone, and with no access to a car.
For more information, see the NZDep2006 Index of Deprivation Research Report (http://www.wnmeds.ac.nz/academic/dph/research/socialindicators.html)
Māori electoral population: A figure representing both the persons registered as electors of the Māori electoral districts and a proportion of the persons of New Zealand Māori descent under the age of 18 years. The proportion is determined by dividing the total number of persons registered as electors of Māori electoral districts by the number of persons of New Zealand Māori descent registered.
Mean: The sum of a list of numbers, divided by the total number of numbers in the list. Also called arithmetic mean or average.
Median: Median is the "middle value" of a list. The smallest number such that at least half the numbers in the list are no greater than it. If the list has an odd number of entries, the median is the middle entry in the list after sorting the list into increasing order. If the list has an even number of entries, the median is equal to the sum of the two middle (after sorting) numbers divided by two.
Meshblock: The meshblock is the smallest geographic area used by Statistics New Zealand in the collection and/or processing of data. The meshblock is thus the building block for aggregation into larger areas such as area units and urban areas.
Over time, the division of meshblocks and changes in population patterns have resulted in meshblock population counts having a considerable range. There are meshblocks with nil population and some with over 500 population. There are over 42,000 meshblocks across New Zealand. (Statistics New Zealand).
Quotas: The Electoral Act 1993 provides that the South Island has 16 General electoral districts. The General electoral population of the South Island is divided by 16 to give the South Island quota. The North Island General electoral population is then divided by the South Island quota to give the number of North Island General electoral districts. The North Island General electoral population is divided by the number of North Island General electorates to give the North Island quota. For the 2007 electorate boundaries, the South Island quota is 57,562 and the North Island quota is 57,243.
In a similar way, the Māori electoral population is divided by the South Island quota and rounded to give the number of Māori electoral districts. The Māori electoral quota is the Māori electoral population divided by the number of Māori electoral districts. For the 2007 electorate boundaries, the Māori quota is 59,583. For both General and Māori electoral districts the Commission may allow the electoral population to vary from quota by up to plus or minus 5%.
Rounding: Census data have been randomly rounded to multiples of three to protect confidentiality. Individual figures may not add up to totals, and values for the same data may vary in different tables.
Suppression: Census data have been suppressed in areas containing less than six individuals. This affects data in the Household Composition, Labour Force and Employment Status, and Industries of the Gainfully Employed tables.
Total responses: Several census variables allow people to provide more than one response to the question. When a person has reported more than one response they will be counted in each group they reported. This means that the total population will be greater than the usual subject population for that variable, as individuals may be counted more than once.
