The New Zealand Department of Statistics Business Directory

Abstract

The New Zealand Government Department of Statistics Business Directory is a directory of the individual economic units which comprise the New Zealand economy. The Directory was established in the early 1970s as a survey frame for the Department's five-yearly series of economic censuses. It is currently undergoing a redevelopment programme due for completion in 1987. The aim of this programme is to enable the Directory to service a wider range of uses, including all economic unit surveys conducted by the Department and other public agencies.

Three different record types are used to hold information about economic units on the Directory. Enterprise records hold information about the legal characteristics of a business, Accounting unit records correspond to sub-divisions of an Enterprise for accounting purposes, and Activity unit records hold data about the physical locations operated by the Enterprise. A variety of standard data items can be held in each record, including names, addresses, industry classification, numbers employed etc. Information on the links between Accounting and Activity units which form Enterprise structures is also maintained, as are data on ownership relationships between Enterprises. Most data are ‘timestamped’ so that previous values of data items and past ownership relationships can be retrieved if required. The Directory is maintained on the Department's computers, and interrogation and updating of data is carried out online via VDUs.