Ethnic group codes Data Services

This page provides information about ethnic group codes and rankings the Ministry uses in its data collections.

Last updated: December 2021

Description

To ensure consistency with other government agencies, the Ministry of Education uses Statistics New Zealand's statistical standard for ethnicity. Statistics New Zealand defines ethnicity as ‘the ethnic group or groups that people identify with or feel they belong to’ and ‘a measure of cultural affiliation, as opposed to race, ancestry, nationality or citizenship’. Statistics New Zealand categorises ethnicities into four levels, as outlined on this page, allowing for collecting and reporting ethnicity data at higher or lower levels of detail.

All enrolment forms for schools and early learning services should allow students to identify with up to three ethnic groups. Similarly, up to three ethnic groups are accepted in Student Management Systems used by the education sector and by most Ministry information systems.

In the past, Ministry data collections and systems required schools to report a student as being in one ethnic group only. A student with more than one identified ethnicity was assigned to a ‘prioritised ethnicity’ group based on Statistics New Zealand rankings. Prioritised ethnicity has now been largely phased out in core Ministry reporting in favour of ‘total response ethnicity’, which counts a student in all ethnic groups they identify with. The prioritised rankings are included below for where they are still in use and for historical reference.

Ethnic group codes

Level 1 Ethnic Groups

The Ministry uses Level 1 Ethnic Groups for reporting.

Table 1: Ethnic group codes at Level 1
Ethnic group Ranking for
prioritised reporting		 Ethnic group Ranking for
prioritised reporting
Māori 1st MELAA1 4th
Pacific Peoples 2nd Other Ethnicity 5th
Asian 3rd European/Pākehā 6th

Note:

  1. MELAA = Middle Eastern/Latin American/African.

Level 2 Ethnic Groups

The Ministry uses Level 2 Ethnic Groups for reporting and the ECE return data collection from unlicensed services.

Table 2: Ethnic group codes at Level 2
Ethnic groupRanking for
prioritised reporting		Ethnic groupRanking for
prioritised reporting
Māori 1st Chinese 11th
Tokelauan 2nd Other Asian 12th
Fijian 3rd Middle Eastern 13th
Niuean 4th Latin America 14th
Tongan 5th African 15th
Cook Islands Māori 6th Other Ethnicity 16th
Samoan 7th Other European 17th
Other Pacific Peoples 8th NZ European/Pākehā 18th
Southeast Asian 9th Not Stated 19th
Indian 10th 

Level 3 Ethnic Groups

The Ministry and wider education sector use Level 3 Ethnic Groups in:

  • Any Student Management System (SMS) approved for use by schools and early learning services must capture at least Level 3, and there are SMSs that capture Level 4.1
  • ENROL, the student enrolment system for schools.
  • The Early Learning Information (ELI) system.
Table 3: Ethnic group codes at Level 3
Code Ethnic groupCode Ethnic group
111 NZ European / Pākehā 371 Other Pacific Peoples
121 British / Irish 411 Filipino
122 Dutch 412 Cambodian
123 Greek 413 Vietnamese
124 Polish 414 Other Southeast Asian
125 South Slav 421 Chinese
126 Italian 431 Indian
127 German 441 Sri Lankan
128 Australian 442 Japanese
129 Other European 443 Korean
211 Māori 444 Other Asian
311 Samoan 511 Middle Eastern
321 Cook Islands Māori 521 Latin American
331 Tongan 531 African
341 Niuean 611 Other Ethnicity
351 Tokelauan 999 Not Stated
361 Fijian

Note:

  1. If a SMS captures Level 4 Ethnic Groups it only reports Level 3 Ethnic Groups to the Ministry

Level 4 Ethnic Groups

See Ethnic classifications