The traditional census as we know it is coming to an end.

Stats NZ is moving to a system using Government collected admin-data, saying the current five yearly Census is financially unsustainable.

Census-style questions will still be asked in much smaller annual surveys looking at a small fraction of the population.

Auckland University of Technology Professor Rhema Vaithianathan told Ryan Bridge the price of census is eye-watering.

She says admin data also allows information to be released yearly, which is more useful than waiting five to find out what's happening.

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