Data1850: A treasure trove of data covering two centuries🍋
A long-run dataset covering NZ economic & demographic variables, freely available
NZIER is pleased to announce a data update for its Data1850 project. The project has collated a very useful set of New Zealand economic and demographic variables, some of which stretch back two centuries.
Data1850 is free to use, supported by NZIER’s public good programme.1 I encourage you to check the dataset out, and to keep it in mind for that time when you need data to answer a question or create a killer graph.
To demonstrate the range and power of Data1850, I used it to find answers to three questions that have been puzzling me.
When did NZ become an urban nation?
While Kiwis tend to pride ourselves on our links to the land, in reality NZ is an urban country with about 85% of us living in urban areas. In 2021 it ranked 42nd of 216 countries listed from most to least urbanised.2
For how long has the NZ population been predominantly urban? Using Data1850, I quickly obtained an answer.
NZ changed from having a majority rural population to having a majority urban one around 1920 — a century ago! Given that, it’s surprising just how long our self-image has persisted.
Interestingly, the graph also shows that our rural population, having been broadly stable for a century, has risen over the past 25 years. Why is that? Is it an exodus from the cities to our beaches and lakes? A question for another day — or for an interested reader to pursue.
Do people leave NZ in response to economic downturns?
NZ has a revolving door — outwards migration competes with, and in some years exceeds, inwards migration. It’s commonly said poor economic conditions at home drive outwards migration.
I used Data1850 to investigate. The GDP series (quarterly from 1947) allowed me to identify recessions.3 I overlaid this on the migration data series (yearly from 1861) to produce the following graph:
Do recessions cause new outwards migration? The relationship is not clear. Perhaps I should try a comparison using Data1850’s unemployment series instead …
Does life expectancy rise with household incomes?
Higher incomes should support, amongst other things, a higher health-related expenditure. So I plotted life expectancy along with average real household incomes:
And yes, the two rose together over that period. Correlation is not causation, but on the face of this data, it would be hard to argue that higher real incomes were bad news for longer lives.
Check out Data1850
Data1850 is supported by NZIER’s public good programme. I encourage you to check it out, and to keep it in mind for that time when you need data to create that killer graph, or just want to pursue an idle query. And, should you find an interesting gem, please consider sharing it with readers of Asymmetric Information.
I trust you will find Data1850 useful.
PS Early bird registration for the NZAE’s 2024 conference closes Wednesday, 29 May. Get yourself registered now, before prices rise. The conference will be held in Wellington on 3-5 July.
Full disclosure: Asymmetric Information receives sponsorship from the NZIER’s public good fund. That said, NZIER has no decision rights over, or responsibility for, A↬I.
Source: Our World in Data.
I used the commonly used definition of a technical recession, i.e., two consecutive quarters with negative GDP growth.
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Great post, some very interesting insights, thank you.