There's concern the Māori turnout in this year's census could be even worse than 2018's record low.
Raw figures released to 1News show just 649,200 forms have been returned from people of Māori decent so far – about 64 percent.
The numbers aren't an official figure and could include duplicates, but they show we're a long way off the 90% participation target for Māori set by Statistics New Zealand.
"We would have liked to see a higher turnout from Māori and Pacific people because they are underrepresented in almost all the data that we have from them, Stats NZ deputy government statistician Simon Mason said.
"For the remaining time that we have available to us, it'll be a hard target for us to meet."
Stats NZ estimates a further 357,600 forms are yet to be received from Māori — about one-third of the Māori population.
Professor Tahu Kukutai from Waikato University’s Te Ngira Institute for Population Research said that would be very difficult to achieve.
"I would be extremely concerned if I was Stats NZ. It's a rough indication, but it's an important one," she said.
"We do have to be careful because the actual response rates can't be computed until after the post survey which happens after the census so these aren't gold standard rates, but they are a good indicator of how the rates are tracking."
The Māori turnout in the 2018 census was about 68% – a record low.
Kukutai said Stats NZ had since changed its approach dramatically but was facing new challenges.
"They have taken on board a lot of the lessons from 2018, a year which went horribly wrong. They put more people on the ground, they've gone to greater efforts to engage with communities, there's certainly a lot more money that's been put into the census this time and they've developed iwi partnerships.
"But they are operating in a very challenging environment; 2023 is not 2018. We have some real challenges with social cohesion, trust, and with disinformation. These are real challenges that national statistics offices around the world face."
Mason agreed there were many external factors that contribute to low turnout rates.
"According to some of the research we've conducted, it falls into three categories: people who don't understand the census, people who don't understand the need for the census, and people who don't want to give their information to the Government," he said.
Māori engagement in the census is crucial.
The data collected influences policy decisions, how funding is allocated, the ability for iwi to understand and service their people, and what Māori representation looks like in Parliament.
"It's for our social services, it's for our roads, it's for our educational services. For Māori, it's for our electoral roll and it helps determine how many Māori seats we get," she said.
"You can't overstate the importance of the census data."
An independent review of the botched 2018 census found too much focus was put on digital forms
The Government invested more than $100 million to get it right this time, boosting the delivery of paper surveys by 40% and doubling the number of census workers on the ground to 3500.
"It's really important for Māori to respond to the census," said Mason.
"It's the only way we measure the uptake in te reo across Aotearoa and the main form of getting iwi affiliation into some of the statistics."
The census can be completed online or over the phone by calling 0800 CENSUS to get a hold of any information you might need to complete the census."
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