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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 statistical area 3 (SA3) boundaries as at 1 January 2026 as defined by Stats NZ. This version contains 929 SA3s, including 4 non-digitised SA3s.
The SA3 geography aims to meet three purposes:
1. approximate suburbs in major, large, and medium urban areas,
2. in predominantly rural areas, provide geographical areas that are larger in area and population size than SA2s but smaller than territorial authorities,
3. minimise data suppression.
SA3s in major, large, and medium urban areas were created by combining SA2s to approximate suburbs as delineated in the Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) Localities dataset. Some of the resulting SA3s have very large populations.
Outside of major, large, and medium urban areas, SA3s generally have populations of 5,000–10,000. These SA3s may represent either a single small urban area, a combination of small urban areas and their surrounding rural SA2s, or a combination of rural SA2s.
Zero or nominal population SA3s
To minimise the amount of unsuppressed data that can be provided in multivariate statistical tables, SA2s with fewer than 1,000 residents are combined with other SA2s wherever possible to reach the 1,000 SA3 population target. However, there are still a number of SA3s with zero or nominal populations.
Small population SA2s designed to maintain alignment between territorial authority and regional council geographies are merged with other SA2s to reach the 5,000–10,000 SA3 population target. These merges mean that some SA3s do not align with regional council boundaries but are aligned to territorial authority.
Small population island SA2s are included in their adjacent land-based SA3.
Island SA2s outside territorial authority or region are the same in the SA3 geography.
Inland water SA2s are aggregated and named by territorial authority, as in the urban rural classification.
Inlet SA2s are aggregated and named by territorial authority or regional council where the water area is outside the territorial authority.
Oceanic SA2s translate directly to SA3s as they are already aggregated to regional council.
The 16 non-digitised SA2s are aggregated to the following 4 non-digitised SA3s (SA3 code; SA3 name):
70001; Oceanic outside region, 70002; Oceanic oil rigs, 70003; Islands outside region, 70004; Ross Dependency outside region.
SA3 numbering and naming
Each SA3 is a single geographic entity with a name and a numeric code. The name refers to a suburb, recognised place name, or portion of a territorial authority. In some instances where place names are the same or very similar, the SA3s are differentiated by their territorial authority, for example, Hillcrest (Hamilton City) and Hillcrest (Rotorua District).
SA3 codes have five digits. North Island SA3 codes start with a 5, South Island SA3 codes start with a 6 and non-digitised SA3 codes start with a 7. They are numbered approximately north to south within their respective territorial authorities. When first created in 2023, the last digit of each code was 0. When SA3 boundaries change in future, only the last digit of the code will change to ensure the north-south pattern is maintained.
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.
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.
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.
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