Mesh blocks or meshblocks are a small geographic unit used in the
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
of several countries.
New Zealand
New Zealand's countrywide meshblock framework was first set up in 1976, although the term dates back to at least the
1916 census. The meshblock pattern is updated each year. It comprised 41,376 meshblocks at the
2006 census, increasing to 46,637 meshblocks in 2013, and to 53,589 in 2018.
Meshblocks are defined by
Statistics New Zealand
Statistics New Zealand ( mi, Tatauranga Aotearoa), branded as Stats NZ, is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the collection of statistics related to the economy, population and society of New Zealand. To this end, Stats ...
as being "the smallest geographic unit for which statistical data is collected and processed by Statistics New Zealand". It is a defined area, varying in size from part of a city block to large areas of rural land. Each of these borders another to form a network covering the whole country including inlets and coasts, and extending out to the
economic zone. Meshblocks are added together to "build up" larger geographic areas such as area units and urban areas. They are also used to draw up and define
New Zealand electorates
An electorate or electoral district ( mi, rohe pōti) is a geographical constituency used for electing a member () to the New Zealand Parliament. The size of electorates is determined such that all electorates have approximately the same populat ...
and
local authority boundaries.
Australia
In
Australia mesh blocks were developed by the
Australian Bureau of Statistics from 2006, and released in February 2008, although they were not fully implemented until 2011. The 2016 Australian Statistical Geography Standard contains 358,122 mesh blocks in Australia. They are intended to be the basic unit which comprise all other
administrative boundaries that are defined by the ABS. Political administrative boundaries (
local,
state
State may refer to:
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and
federal),
suburbs
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include Commercial area, commercial and mixed-use development, mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a ...
,
postal, and
cadastral
A cadastre or cadaster is a comprehensive recording of the real estate or real property's metes and bounds, metes-and-bounds of a country.Jo Henssen, ''Basic Principles of the Main Cadastral Systems in the World,'/ref>
Often it is represented gra ...
are approximated by mesh block allocations. This is so that statistics can be easily made available for the many types of uses needed, such as non-standard areas like water catchments etc. Mesh blocks are about four or five times smaller than the previously used Census Collection Districts.
councils.wa Issue 35 3 September 2004
/ref> Most of those in residential areas cover an area of around 30–60 dwellings, which is meant to be the smallest size data can be gathered so that people would not be able to be identified.
See also
*Census tract
A census tract, census area, census district or meshblock is a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census. Sometimes these coincide with the limits of cities, towns or other administrative areas and several tracts commonly exi ...
References
{{reflist, 2
External links
Mesh Blocks Digital Boundaries, Australia, 2006, ABSMesh blocks: A new building block of Australian geography
Subdivisions of Australia
Demographics of New Zealand
Censuses