Published 07 September 2023
The New Zealand Disability Survey is currently underway!
You might be approached by Statistics New Zealand to take part, or you may have liked to but you weren't invited. That's because participants are randomly selected from people that took the 2023 Census.
If you declared yourself disabled or non-disabled you may still be asked to participate, that's because asking the same questions to different groups allows Statistics New Zealand to compare responses.
The last time this survey was done was in 2013, so collecting all the data now is really important as it will mean our Government and ministries can make well-informed decisions to support our community.
Some of the things they're look at include:
- How much of our disabled community are currently employed?
From this, decision-makers can look at things like what they need to do to help more people into work and which areas have the most barriers to entry for our community. - How much are our disabled community being paid?
From this, decision-makers will know how much they need to work with organisations to address policies or choices that are creating unfair outcomes for our community. - What's the overall wellbeing like for our disabled community?
This will give decision-makers an idea of where they need to make immediate changes to get improvements and where they need to develop longer term changes to improve how supported and healthy our community are.
Having accurate and detailed information is really important as it mean decision-makers can prove the value and need for changes. The Statistics New Zealand disability survey asks lots of questions that help give people who aren't directly connected to our community an idea of what it looks like.
All the information will be compared to what things looked like in Aotearoa New Zealand 10 years ago so people can understand how things have changed.
Once all the surveys are complete, Statistics New Zealand will pull all the information together and develop an understanding of what it means. Then they'll share that in the form of a report with the Government and the rest of New Zealand. It's quite a bit of mahi (work) so it's likely that the final report wont be out until this time in 2024.
Find out more about the survey at the link below.
About the 2023 Disability Survey | Stats NZ (external link)
https://www.stats.govt.nz/help-with-surveys/list-of-stats-nz-surveys/about-the-2023-disability-survey/