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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 ward 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 222 wards, excluding ‘area outside ward’.
Wards are defined under the Local Electoral Act 2001 and result from dividing a territorial authority for electoral purposes. Wards were originally set up within any territorial authority with a population of at least 20,000. The ward system was designed to allow for the recognition of communities within a territorial authority and to increase community involvement in the local government system. Ward boundaries are reviewed in the year before the three-yearly local government elections.
Wards are defined at meshblock level, and do not coincide with the statistical area geographies.
Numbering
Wards are numbered based on their corresponding territorial authority. Each ward has a unique five-digit number. The first three digits represent the territorial authority that the ward lies within. The following two digits are sequential and represent the number of wards within a territorial authority. For example, Nameless District (084) has three wards, which are coded 08401, 08402, and 08403. Several territorial authorities do not have wards. If part or all of Nameless District is not represented by a ward it is coded 08499 ‘Area Outside Ward’. There is also a code of 99999 for those areas outside of territorial authority areas.
Maintenance
The Local Electoral Act 2001 provides for ward boundaries to be reviewed before every second triennial local government election.
The Ward 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.
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