Sex is a fundamental variable for determining the demographic characteristics of a population for statistical, policy, and research purposes, both in New Zealand and internationally. It is frequently used in cross-tabulations across a wide range of topics resulting in comparisons of social outcomes for men and women and in the monitoring of progress towards social equity goals. Sex information, along with age, is used to produce national and sub-national population estimates and projections, as well as sex-specific demographic indicators such as life expectancy and fertility rates. They also provide the base population for many derived series, for example in areas such as morbidity, accident, and crime statistics. Sex data is fundamental in all administrative collections and surveys, and greatly assists international comparability.
Sex is a flat classification with two categories:
1 Male 2 Female
No provision is made for residual categories as, in line with international practice, it is Statistics New Zealand policy to impute missing values for sex data.