This dataset is the definitive set of annually released (territorial authority) subdivision boundaries for 2021, as defined by the territorial authorities and/or Local Government Commission and maintained by Stats NZ (the custodian). This version contains 145 categories.
Subdivisions are set up under the Local Government Act 2002 and Local Electoral Act 2001. A subdivision is a division of a community or local board area for electoral purposes. Subdivisions are defined at meshblock level, and do not coincide with the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography or the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography. A number of territorial authorities do not have subdivisions, and if they do, the subdivisions do not necessarily cover the whole territorial authority area. Subdivisions nest within community or local boards. Where a community or local board is divided into subdivisions all of the community or local board area must be included in a subdivision.
Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The name field 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.