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 the regional council constituency boundaries as at 1 January 2026 as defined by the territorial authorities and/or Local Government Commission, and maintained by Stats NZ. This version contains 58 constituencies, excluding ‘area outside regional council constituency’

Constituencies are established under the Local Electoral Act 2001 and result from the division of a region for electoral purposes.

If a regional council decides to have a Māori constituency, the constituencies within the council are known as general constituencies and Māori constituencies. Constituencies are divisions of regional council areas. They are defined at meshblock level, and do not coincide with the statistical area geographies. They are created, based on population, to be the voting areas within councils. Constituencies are required to reflect communities of interest. Their boundaries, so far as is practicable, coincide with those of territorial authorities or wards.

The boundaries of constituencies may be reviewed before each three-yearly local government election. Regional councils must review their representation arrangements at least once every six years. The provisions for such reviews are in the Local Government Act 2002.

Structure

Constituency boundaries must coincide with meshblock boundaries under section 19U of the Local Electoral Act 2001. Constituencies are required to reflect communities of interest, and their boundaries must, so far as is practicable, coincide with territorial authority and ward boundaries. If a regional council decides to have a Māori constituency, the constituencies within the regional council area are known as general constituencies and Māori constituencies.

Numbering

The Regional Council Constituency classification is a flat classification. Constituencies are numbered based on their corresponding regional council. Each constituency has a unique four-digit code. The first two digits represent the regional council that the constituency lies within. The last two digits are sequential and represent the number of constituencies within a regional council. For example, the Nameless Regional Council (12) contains three constituencies, which are coded 1201, 1202, and 1203. The descriptor ‘Area Outside Regional Council Constituency’ is applied to each individual regional council that does not have constituencies. For example, 1299, ’Area Outside Regional Council Constituency’ is the code and descriptor for the Nameless Regional Council. There is also a code of 9999, ‘Area Outside Regional Council Constituency’ for those areas outside of regional council areas.

Maintenance

The Local Electoral Act 2001 provides for constituency boundaries to be reviewed before every second triennial local government election. The Regional Council Constituency classification is released annually on 1 January to coincide with the update of meshblocks, but there are not always changes from the previous classification.

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