Review of the Measurement of Ethnicity in Official Statistics

Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, 2005

Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online

Identifying with more than one ethnicity is becoming increasingly common in New Zealand. It is therefore important that the methods of categorising ethnicity used by government agencies and researchers effectively account for diverse ethnic identities. The aim of this research was to assess the impact of using different methods of categorising ethnicity on understanding outcomes in New Zealand, using Census 2013 information about tobacco smoking among the population aged 15+ years as an illustration. Prioritised, total response and single/combination categorisation methods were compared. Prioritised and total response categorisation generally produced similar prevalence estimates and patterns for smoking status, although estimates diverged somewhat for Māori ethnic groups and to a lesser extent for Pacific Peoples and Asian ethnic groups. Single/combination categorisation indicated that combination ethnic groups tend to have smoking outcomes between those of the constituent groups. Categorisation method had a considerable impact on the size of some ethnic groups. Prioritised ethnicity categorisation may be inappropriate for use by government agencies and for policyrelevant research principally concerned with children, young people, Māori or Pacific Peoples. Single/combination categorisation is useful for understanding the associations between ethnicity and outcomes, however previous work suggests this method should be used with caution.

New Zealand Population Review, 2011

Writing in the Journal of the Polynesian Society fifty years ago, budding demographer Ian Pool asked: "When is a Maori a 'Maori' "? His assertion that cultural self-identification was the only credible way to define Māori collectively in official statistics was in stark contrast to the prevailing institutional practice of defining Māori by 'degree of blood.' In this article I use key insights from Ian's paper to reflect on contemporary practices of demography, focusing specifically on the construction of Māori as a discrete population for demographic research, and the use of Māori ethnic identification as an independent variable. I conclude with some thoughts on how official statistics might be changed to better reflect the aspirations and needs of Māori in a post-settlement context.

2007

The New Zealand medical journal, 2010

AIM To provide an update for the assessment of discrepancies in ethnicity counts in the 2001 census and mortality data for the 2004-2006 period. METHODS 2001 census anonymously and probabilistically linked to 5 years of subsequent mortality data (135,849 eligible mortality records), allowing a comparison of ethnicity recording for the years 2001-2004 and 2004-2006. RESULTS Using a total definition of ethnicity, census and mortality counts agree reasonably well in 2004-06 and resemble comparisons in 2001-04, except at younger ages where counts for Pacific and Asian ethnicities are up to a third less for mortality data. Due to multiple ethnicities being more commonly recorded on census data, sole ethnicity counts are generally greater on mortality than census data, particularly for Maori ethnicity. CONCLUSION Similar to 2001-2004, there is little bias in ethnic group counts between census and mortality data when using total ethnicity. Calculations of mortality rates by ethnicity using...

Statistical Journal of the IAOS

Establishing meaningful ethnicity classification standards and rules is part of the solution to producing improved health measurement for Indigenous people. The remaining effort should be devoted to establishing a statistical framework and protocols that enables the inclusion of Indigenous cultures and languages into the development and operationalisation of measures and protocols for collecting and analysing data. This process is underway in Aotearoa-New Zealand to develop administrative data and institute new statistical frameworks that better reflect Indigenous values and society. Health data can be linked to administrative data to fill gaps in our knowledge and understanding of Indigenous health measurement.

2000

RePEc: Research Papers in Economics, 2013