As census workers complete an ''urgent'' spree of door-knocking to complete the 2013 Census, Statistics New Zealand says it is pleased more than half of residents in Oamaru took part online.
Oamaru was chosen by Statistics NZ to act as a ''special administrative area''. Residents were encouraged to take part solely through the internet, in an effort to streamline the $90 million process in time for the next census, in 2018.
Although Statistics NZ strategy and development unit project manager Phillippa Kidd said the census field team would still operate for another two weeks, it appeared that ''well over'' 50% of residents had filled out census forms online.
Mrs Kidd said details were still being finalised, but the Oamaru online uptake was ''significantly higher'' than the rest of New Zealand.
''We are just in the final process of contacting or knocking on doors for the last few people who haven't returned their forms yet, so we haven't quite finished. But we are very happy with the way the census has gone overall and we have learnt a huge amount about the process and things for the future to make it better, too.''
She said the Oamaru field operation would operate until April 17, and anyone who had not completed census forms could still fill in paper forms or take part online.
Lost forms or online information could be obtained from the National Census Contact centre (0800 CENSUS).
''Our collectors are out there and we are delivering urgent reminder letters at the moment.''
Census data would be released at the beginning of December, but census officials would return to Oamaru before then to run a telephone survey and focus groups to talk to residents and garner their thoughts on how the process had been conducted in the town.
Oamaru residents could register to take part in the post-census evaluation by emailing censusmgmt@stats.govt.nz, she said.
