Refer to the current geographies boundaries table for a list of all current geographies and recent updates.
Territorial authorities
Territorial Authority Local Board (TALB) is a derived classification. TALB is derived from the definitive version of the annually released local boards for Auckland and territorial authorities for the rest of New Zealand as at 1 January 2025, as defined by the territorial authorities and/or Local Government Commission and maintained by Stats NZ, clipped to the coastline. This clipped version has been created for cartographic purposes and so does not fully represent the official full extent boundaries. This version contains 21 local boards in the Auckland Council and 66 territorial authority boundaries for the rest New Zealand.
Territorial authorities are the second tier of local government in New Zealand, below regional councils. They are defined under schedule 2, part 1 of the Local Government Act 2002 as city councils or district councils. Territorial authorities were established in 1989 when 205 territorial local authorities were replaced by 75 territorial authorities. Territorial boundaries must coincide with meshblock boundaries under schedule 3, clause 17 of the Local Government Act 2002.
Local boards
Local boards share governance with a council’s governing body and each has complementary responsibilities, guaranteed by legislation. Local boards can propose bylaws and they gather community views on local and regional matters. Legislation enacted in 2012 allows for the establishment of local boards in areas of new unitary authorities that are predominantly urban and have a population of more than 400,000. The boundaries of local boards cannot be abolished or changed except through a reorganisation process. If new local boards are created they will be incorporated into this classification.
Local boards are defined at meshblock level. Stats NZ must be consulted if there is a proposed boundary change that does not align with the meshblock pattern. Local boards do not coincide with the statistical area 1 (SA1), statistical area 2 (SA2) geographies, or statistical area 3 (SA3) geographies.
Auckland Council local boards
The Auckland Council was established in November 2010 under the Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Act 2009. Seven territorial authorities within the Auckland Region were abolished and replaced by the unitary authority Auckland Council. Local boards fall within the community board classification. Changes were reflected in the 2011 and subsequent community board classifications.
For statistical outputs that use territorial authorities to aggregate and report data Auckland Council is treated as a single geographic entity, whereas previously data was provided for the seven territorial authorities. Presenting data for this single territorial authority hides meaningful patterns and trends for a significant portion of the population. A solution was to create a new classification of territorial authorities that includes the local boards for Auckland.
Numbering
TALB is a flat classification. Each category has a unique five-digit code. The first three digits represent the territorial authority code, ranging from 001 to 076 (with 999 being Area Outside Territorial Authority). The last two digits indicate if the territorial authority is further defined at local board level: 00 indicates the territorial authority is “not further defined”. Auckland retains sequential codes from the community board classification.
The names for the classification are retained from the territorial authority and community board classifications.
Clipped Version
This clipped version has been created for cartographic purposes and so does not fully represent the official full extent boundaries.
High-definition version
This high definition (HD) version is the most detailed geometry, suitable for use in GIS for geometric analysis operations and for the computation of areas, centroids and other metrics. The HD version is aligned to the LINZ cadastre.
Macrons
Names are provided with and without tohutō/macrons. The column name for those without macrons is suffixed ‘ascii’.
Digital data
Digital boundary data became freely available on 1 July 2007.
Further information
To download geographic classifications in table formats such as CSV please use Ariā
For more information please refer to the Statistical standard for geographic areas 2023.
Contact: geography@stats.govt.nz
