Income bands

Classification

To search the classification use the Classification Code Finder. Download the Classification Coding System.

Rationale

Income bands are a convenient and alternate way of collecting income information when income is not the prime focus of a survey. Bands reduce respondent burden by providing a simple way to obtain contextual information about income. Income bands are often tabulated with other variables such as age, occupation and education qualifications to provide information on the relationship between these variables and the income distribution of the population.

In addition, when income information has been collected as dollar amounts, it may be output as income bands. This provides statistics on the distribution of income across the population, which is not provided by average income.

Income band statistics are used extensively within Statistics New Zealand, across government, and by other agencies and academics for: 

• formulating social and economic policy
• calculating school deciles
• use as an indicator for poverty statistics and the New Zealand Index of Deprivation
• research and planning
• monitoring programmes.

Classification of income bands

The standard classification of income bands is a flat classification. The first two categories reflect income loss and zero income; there are 13 income bands and a list of residual categories.

Income Bands