Guides: Statistics resources: Key resources

Key resources

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Statistics for university staff and students

Statistics for university staff and students provides you with a collection of unique and comprehensive data sets, that can be used to answer a range of social, demographic, and economic questions about New Zealand’s population.

Here are some examples of data sets currently available for use:

Resources for researchers and teaching staff

The following resources are available for research and teaching purposes.

Confidentialised unit record files (CURFs)
Real-world data sets from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa that have been modified to protect the confidentiality of survey participants. They contain statistical data that can used by researchers to answer a range of questions about New Zealand society. Use of CURF data sets requires a formal approval process. Contact philip.worthington@vuw.ac.nz.
Statistical Consultant
Consulting services available to postgraduate students, academic and professional staff.
Synthetic unit record files (SURFs)
These records have been artificially created to emulate real-world statistical data sets, and are specifically designed for teaching purposes. (Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa)

Statistics NZ Youtube channel Tutorials, Data vsualistions, and summary videos
UK Data Service Slides and recordings of UK Data Service webinars are made available on our past events pages and YouTube channel soon after the event has taken place.
Stats NZ Tatauragna Aotearoa customised data sets
Available on request. Access data held by Statistics New Zealand that is not easily accessible by other means. Our university has an allocation of support hours from Stats NZ for help creating customised data sets. This support service is available for research or teaching purposes. Contact philip.worthington@vuw.ac.nz to make a request.
Teaching quantitative methods with a New Zealand synthetic unit record dataset
The purpose of these materials is to teach these statistical techniques in a way that the underlying intuition of the models is understood and model output can be translated.

Learn how to use statistics

SAGE Research Methods Datasets
Choose from over 500 datasets using data from real research, designed to support the teaching and independent learning of data analysis techniques.

New Zealand Data Sources

Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa
New Zealand’s national statistical office. Find data and statistics on a wide range of topics such as income, housing, the environment, education and social well-being.

The following resources are useful for assignment work and research. You can also use the Te Waharoa search tool to find textbooks and journal articles on using statistics. For help on using Te Waharoa, see Te Waharoa search help

Aotearoa Data Explorer (ADE)
Access official data about New Zealand from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa. View and download extracts from large data sets. Select variables, customise your table layout, then download in Excel or CSV format. (ADE has replaced NZ.Stat.)

Climate data
The National Climate Database is an archive of climate observations which in some places extend as far back as the 1860s.
Figure.NZ
Data from organizations such as corporations, public repositories, government departments and academics.
Indicators and snapshots - New Zealand statistics
Get headline figures and overviews of New Zealand's wellbeing, population, environment, and economy. (Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa)
New Zealand's environment at a glance
Infographic of New Zealand’s environment using findings from the Environment Aotearoa 2015 report .
New Zealand geographic data and maps
Explore and visualise official statistics in map form. Find statistics for regional councils and territorial authorities, Download geospatial datasets for use with GIS software. (Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa)
The New Zealand Official Yearbook
A statistical picture of life in New Zealand, from 1893 to 2012. (Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa)
New Zealand social indicators
Social indicators are available in Ngā Tūtohu Aotearoa – Indicators Aotearoa New Zealand. These indicators aim to help all of us monitor progress around our social, economic, and environmental wellbeing.
NZ health statistics
The central location for accessing NZ health data and statistics
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa infographics
View Stats NZ's infographics on a range of topics, including the census, economy, employment and unemployment, income, population, and wellbeing.
Te Whata
Data platform tailored specifically by iwi for iwi

Infoshare

Infoshare is a free online tool that gives you access to a range of time-series data such as:

Economic information (eg price indexes and production figures)
Demographic measures (eg births and deaths)
Arrival and departure data
Wholesale and retail trade information
Exports and imports data
Building consents data

Infoshare data sets can be browsed, downloaded and customised to meet your needs.

Other statistical resources

World Bank eLibrary
UNdata
data.govt.nz: Government data sets online
Pew research centre
Statesman yearbook
CIA world factbook
Our World in Data Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. All free: open access and open source