Te taunaki e anga whakamua ai te Ratonga Tūmatanui Te Taunaki Public Service Census
Te Taunaki Public Service Census is a survey of public servants working in departments and departmental agencies. The 2025 Census ran from 3-21 March. We anticipate publishing the results in July 2025.
What is the Public Service Census?
Te Taunaki Public Service Census is a survey of New Zealand public servants working in departments and departmental agencies.
The 2025 Census ran from 3-21 March. It covered employee experiences and demographic information, giving valuable insights about capability and culture across Public Service organisations.
We ran the first Census in 2021 to address information gaps and strengthen our oversight role. The second Census helps us to continue to drive performance through robust data collected across the Public Service.
The Census is the only way we collect information directly from public servants.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Public Service Census. Your ideas will help inform my view on the direction we take the Public Service, and how we shape and reorient the model.
What questions were asked?
We review and update the questionnaire for each iteration of the Census to ensure that the questions remain relevant. We take into account programmes of work that could be supported by information at the system and agency level. Though core topics of the survey will remain so we can monitor long-term trends, we will continue to introduce modules on new topics as needed.
In 2025, we asked questions about:
- enablers of productivity e.g. clarity of agency priorities and work objectives, manager support, impact of flexible work on productivity, team collaboration, workload and engagement
- delivery e.g. responsiveness to customer feedback, innovation, interagency collaboration
- good employer requirements e.g. job stress, bullying, racial and sexual harassment, discrimination
- integrity and conduct e.g. transparency, political neutrality, free and frank advice
- demographic characteristics not collected elsewhere e.g. age, caring responsibilities, religion, disabilities.
You can read the 2025 questionnaire on our website:
When will the results be published?
We anticipate publishing the Census results on our website in July 2025.
What will the data be used for?
The Census data will help to drive improvement across the Public Service.
We will use the data to inform work across the system and within agencies. This supports our core work such as:
- chief executive, agency and system performance management (e.g., assessing whether an agency has the capability and culture it needs to be an effective system leader and steward, providing comparable data to inform Performance Improvement Reviews)
- workforce policies and interventions, and
- the guidance and support we provide on integrity matters (including supporting agency specific work through our network of Integrity Champions).
Our role in collecting and publishing information ensures that the public has information readily accessible about the performance of agencies.
Funding
In 2025, we funded participation for all staff of departments and departmental agencies. Crown agents and non-Public Service departments can self-fund if they would like to participate later in the year.
The Census follows the model used in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada who regularly survey their public service workforces. This is more cost effective than individual agencies running their own surveys due to economies of scale and the ability to benchmark by using a consistent set of questions for all agencies.
Privacy
Participants’ privacy is paramount. Te Taunaki Public Service Census responses are grouped and included in summary reporting at the agency and system level. Individuals are not identified in any reporting. Read more about how we protect your privacy here:
Privacy summary for Te Taunaki Public Service Census 2025
The information is collected securely by Research New Zealand whose Security Policy and Practices meet the requirements set out in the New Zealand Information Security Manual.
New Zealand Information Security Manual — gcsb.govt.nz
We securely store an anonymised version of the data in our internal system.
Accessibility
Our research provider for the Census has been independently assessed as conforming to accessibility standard WCAG 2.2 AA.
Using the dataset for research
We invite applications from bona fide researchers to use anonymised information from the Census dataset on site at the Commission. Note datasets for research are only available onsite at our office and will not include agency name as a variable. Iwi affiliation is part of the dataset, and we can assist iwi to access summary reporting about public servants from their community.
For more information about research using the anonymised dataset, contact us at:
Te taunaki e anga whakamua ai te Ratonga Tūmatanui means ‘the evidence that moves the Public Service forward’ (Te Taunaki | the evidence)
2021 Te Taunaki Public Service Census
The final response rate for the 2021 Census was 63.1%, representing the views and experiences of about 40,000 public servants. This comprised 60.5% (around 38,340) public servants completing the survey, and a further 2.6% (1,640) who partially completed.
Results
The results from the 2021 survey are on our website. Topics can be viewed for the Public Service overall, or for a single organisation.
Working in the Public Service
Workforce Data — Spirit of Service
Workforce Data — Conditions of employment
Workforce Data — Wellbeing at work
Workforce Data — Balancing life and work
Diversity and inclusion
Workforce Data — Ethnicity in the Public Service
Māori Crown relationship
Deep dive reports
Deep Dive Report: Tangata Whaikaha Māori and Disabled Public Servants
Deep Dive Report: Women in the Public Service
Deep Dive Report: Public Servants with Diverse Sexual Identities
Deep Dive Report: Gender Diverse Public Servants
Deep Dive Report: Transgender Public Servants
Deep Dive Report: Intersex Public Servants
To explore the data in more detail, use our interactive data drilldown.
Guidance: Data drilldown and technical guidance
Questionnaire
The 2021 questionnaire is published on our website:
Questionnaire — Te Taunaki Public Service Census 2021
For information on the methodology of the 2021 survey, including development, testing, participation rates, and margin of error, read the Technical Report prepared by our research provider, Research New Zealand.