Description

Refer to the current geographies boundaries table for a list of all current geographies and recent updates.

This dataset is the definitive version of community board boundaries as at 1 January 2026, as defined by the territorial authorities and/or Local Government Commission and maintained by Stats NZ. This classification includes community boards and local boards. This version contains 111 community boards and 21 Auckland local boards, excluding ‘area outside community board’.

Community boards and local boards provide voting representation at a community level. They are defined under the Local Government Act 2002 and Local Electoral Act 2001. Local boards were introduced as part of the new local government arrangements for Auckland in 2010. Community boards and local boards are defined at meshblock level and do not coincide with the statistical area geographies.

Structure

The purpose of community boards is to administer the affairs of communities with a population of 1,500 or more people within rural, urban, or metropolitan areas of a territorial authority. A community board’s functions, powers, and duties are at the discretion of its parent territorial authority, so these may differ between community boards.

Community boards are a link between the council and the community. Community boards can be established at any time but may only be abolished as part of a council’s regular representation review carried out before the triennial local government elections; this is provided for in the Local Electoral Act 2001.

Local boards can be established within any unitary authority. 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.

Community board and local board boundaries must coincide with meshblock boundaries under Local Government Act 2002 and Local Electoral Act 2001. Community boards, local boards and wards nest within territorial authorities. There is not a one-to-one relationship and community boards or local boards may straddle wards.

Numbering

The Community Board classification is a flat classification. Community boards are numbered based on their corresponding territorial authority. Each community board has a unique five-digit number. The first three digits refer to the territorial authority that the community board lies within. The following two digits are sequential and represent the number of community boards within the territorial authority. For example, Nameless District (084) has two community boards numbered 08401 and 08402. If part of Nameless District is not represented by a community board it is coded 08499 ‘Area outside community’. The descriptor ‘Area outside community’ is applied to each individual territorial authority that has any areas outside community board or does not have any community boards. There is also a code of 99999 ‘Area outside community’ for those areas outside of territorial authority areas.

Maintenance

The Local Electoral Act 2001 provides for community boards to be reviewed before every second triennial local government election.

Local boards cannot be established, abolished or their boundaries changed except through a reorganisation process (Local Government Act 2002).

The Community Board classification is released when there are updates for local body elections, or when a boundary or name change is initiated by another geography update. For example, if a territorial authority boundary is changed as part of a local government reorganisation.

Lineage

These boundaries are derived from the meshblock pattern. Using spatial processing tools, the meshblocks are dissolved to form higher-level geographies.

The original vertices delineating the meshblock boundary pattern were digitised in 1991 from 1:5,000 scale urban maps and 1:50,000 scale rural maps. The magnitude of error of the original digital points would have been in the range of +/- 10 metres in urban areas and +/- 25 metres in rural areas. Where meshblock boundaries coincide with cadastral boundaries the magnitude of error will be within the range of 1–5 metres in urban areas and 1-100 metres in rural areas, this being the estimated magnitude of error in Landonline.

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.

Liability

While care has been taken to compile these boundary coordinates, Stats NZ gives no warranty that the data supplied is free from error. Stats NZ shall not be liable for any loss suffered through the use, directly or indirectly, of any information, product or service.

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