Census Records in New Zealand

National Census Returns

Early lists from 1843 to 1853, while New Zealand was a British Colony information was collected and published in the Blue Books but the only individuals listed by name were civil servants and felons. The first national return was taken in 1858 but returns do not survive before 1966.

A decision was made between the Government Statistician and the Chief Archivist to keep the returns and survive for 1966, 1976 & 1986 returns but from 1996 the census returns containing personal identifying data are destroyed due to privacy issues.

Maori Census Schedules

1840’s return for the Wairarapa and one for Opotiki in 1867 are the only returns that survive, are incomplete and are held by Archives New Zealand.

Regional Census Schedules

New Zealand Company Return (held by Archives New Zealand)

Auckland 1845/1846

Manawatu 1845/1846

New Plymouth 1845/1846

Contains: head of each household, occupation and type of housing

Wellington 1840 – 1845 lists those who died at Wellington for the period

Auckland (Howick) 1849 (held by Auckland Institute Museum Library)

A parish census of the Fencible settlement taken by the Reverend Frederick Julius and is most useful for checking Fencible families. 

Auckland Police Censuses 1842; 1843; 1844 & 1845

(held by the Auckland Public Library and Indexed)

Contains: street resident; occupants; occupation; religion; married or single

(note records any births, deaths or marriages during the past year), construction of the house

Nelson 1845 & 1849

The first Nelson census was taken in 1845 followed by another one in 1849. Both sets have been indexed into the general biographical index held by Archives New Zealand, Wellington.

It is frustrating to use particularly if you compare it to the British census. It gives you the name head of the household; address, numbers in each family, occupation, religion, crops and livestock kept by each family

The following is an example of how entries are recorded:

“1 male 2-7 years; 1 female 7 – 14 years; 1 female 21 – 45 years”

War - Military Census

By proclamation issued under the National Registration Act, 1915, every male resident of New Zealand between the ages of 17 and 60 is required to register no later than 9^th November 1915

This record has been published on CD Rom (version 2 in 2005) and is a record of every living New Zealand male aged between 17 and 60.

In the absence of Census records these records are very valuable

New Zealand Defence Force Personnel Archives Attestation & History sheets survive (Note that in war time if the enlistee provided the information sometimes provided included a different surname, first names, date of birth that entitled them to list. If the enlistee looked old enough, passed the medical they were accepted. The form also included a signature. Birth certificates were not required until the Korean War.

 

Census Records in Australia

In New South Wales, population surveys, known as "musters" in the early days, began in 1788, when a victualling list of persons being supplied with food from Government Stores was drawn up.

A history of Australian censuses, and those responsible for them since the first national survey was taken in 1911, is given in ‘Australian Statisticians and the Development of Official Statistics’.

A few scraps of name identified colonial census surveys for various parts of Australia, including New South Wales, survive up to 1901, but these only include perhaps some 500,000 people, a very small portion of the cumulative population of the 1788-1901 period.

Unfortunately, it was the Australian federal government policy over the years to destroy all the name-identified census returns. All original returns after 1901 have been destroyed under this policy in the name of “privacy”. Apart from one 1916 survey of non-British residents, no Australian census returns survive from 1911 to 1996. This has left huge gaps in the record of the Australian culture. Some millions of Australian residents have come and gone like burnt out candles, to be forgotten by history, as if they had never existed.

By 2001, some 4 million Australian residents were immigrants and therefore had no birth certificates in the Australian civil registration system. Many of these immigrants came from countries torn apart by war, in which ancestral records were never kept, or destroyed in the troubles. About one million of these immigrants had not applied to become Australian citizens and were therefore not listed in the naturalisation records. About one million Australian children and teenagers at this time were not eligible to vote and would not have been on electoral rolls. Over 40 percent of Australians were not getting married and, therefore official marriage records showing information like, age, parentage, occupation, residence and birthplace for these people, did not exist. 

The official census population of Australia in 1901 was 3,773,801. Immigrants to the country from 1788-1900 totalled 1,699,400. The Australian population at the time of the 1911 census was 4,455,005 and by 2001 had reached 19,334,200. So, over the last 100 years, the census records of about 15 million Australians have been lost.

In light of the above, it is interesting to contemplate how many Australian residents have fallen through the “record gap” over the last 173 years and cannot be found listed in any surviving record.