This dataset is the definitive set of annually released regional council constituency boundaries for 2022 as defined by the regional councils and/or Local Government Commission and maintained by Stats NZ (the custodian). This version contains 58 constituencies, excluding area outside regional council constituency.
Constituencies are established under the Local Electoral Act 2001 and result from the division of a region for electoral purposes. If a regional council decides to have a Māori constituency, the constituencies within the council are known as general constituencies and Māori constituencies. Constituencies are divisions of regional council areas.
Constituencies are defined at meshblock level, and do not coincide with the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography or the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography. They are created, based on population, to be the voting areas within councils.
Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The column name for those without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’.
This generalised version has been simplified for rapid drawing and is designed for thematic or web mapping purposes.
Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.
