It's time to stand up and be counted. Today is Census Day, the time when we are all obliged to answer a few questions about ourselves and our home situation.
The reason, of course, is to help key decision-makers - the information is used by government, iwi, councils and businesses. Depending on what the data show, it can influence billions of dollars of spending.
For news organisations, Census data are often used for comparison and to identify possible issues that need to be addressed.
The changes in society are reflected in the questions and the answers help define social policy. Imagine if we had to rely on information from the 1971 Census, when people were asked if their home had a flush toilet, telephone, fridge, deep freeze or powered lawnmower.
It is no small exercise, counting every person in the country and collating information about them. The Census is said to cost about $72 million and will involve 7500 collectors dropping off forms to about 4.2 million people. One key difference this time is that we can fill out our forms online, an advance that reduces the number of visits for collectors and which will speed data collation.
