The geographic areas file 2022 is a text file that classifies meshblocks into larger geographic areas, such as statistical area 2s, territorial authorities, and regional councils. You can use the areas file, also known as a concordance file, to see how the various geographic boundaries are related.
For each meshblock, there is a series of codes that link to any meshblock-defined geographic area. All areas are set as at 1 January of the specified year. Concordance files are available from different years, to enable data for the same area classification to be compared over time.
The areas file can be used in conjunction with the geographic boundary files available on Stats NZ's Geographic Data Service.
Geographic areas files for earlier years are also available on Stats NZ’s Geographic Data Service.
From 2020 onwards, names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons, as applicable. Where a descriptor column has a macron, the corresponding column name without a macron is suffixed with ‘ascii’.
