In a council meeting in Dunedin yesterday, the council decided to change the data collection method for the 2025 community survey to online interviewing with social media support.
The council’s previous approach for survey data collection has been a combination of phone and online interviewing via a proprietary panel.
But a report to the council said this was costly and the new method would provide more insightful data.
The new survey would be sent 14,300 residents to achieve 1000 minimum responses at an estimated 7% response rate
Residents would be proportionately selected from each district in Otago and were able to over-sample specific attributes to ensure diversity of respondents, the report said.
Respondents are invited to participate via a postal letter and directed to an online survey. They each have a unique respondent ID for tracking and a QR code that directs respondent to the survey.
Cr Kevin Malcolm asked if people who did not have a computer would miss out.
Council consultant Natalie Roberts said for those who could not complete the survey online, a hard copy option would be sent out or a phone interview done. The survey would be open for completion for four weeks.
Ms Roberts said the Queenstown Lakes District Council did its survey this way and received 1700 replies. The Dunedin City Council also carried out its survey this way.
She said the council did not want a reply which had too many people of one demographic. It needed to be representative of the population.
The survey would be carried out in January-February next year and students coming back into the city would be caught by the survey in February.
The survey would be $24,000 cheaper than the current format.
