In the latest CensusAtSchool survey, 39,000 students weighed in on the contentious debate: does pineapple belong on pizza? The results are in, showcasing a tight divide among Kiwi youth. While 47% advocate for its inclusion, 41% reject the idea of the South American fruit on top of their pizza. Surprisingly, 12% remained undecided.

According to Wikipedia, a Greek Canadian restauranter, Sam Panopoulos, inspired by the sweet-sour flavours of Chinese cuisine, added the first pineapple to a pizza just over 60 years ago and called it the Hawaiian pizza. The name “Hawaiian” surprisingly didn’t stem from the U.S. state but rather from the canned pineapple brand used at the time. Initially met with skepticism and slow adoption, this unconventional topping took time to win over pizza enthusiasts to become one of the most popular.

These statistics come from CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura, a non-profit online educational project that brings statistics to life in English and Māori-medium classrooms. Supervised by teachers, students anonymously answer questions in English, te reo Māori, Lea Faka Tonga, Gagana Samoa, Kūki ‘Airani Māori, or Vosa Vakaviti. The project is run by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Stats NZ.

The eleventh biennial edition of CensusAtSchool was launched last year and will continue until the end of this year. See the questions, which schools are taking part, and a live dashboard on CensusAtSchool’s website: www.censusatschool.org.nz.

Snapchat has emerged as the top app among high school students, with 61% of them reporting that they used it four or more times the day before participating in the CensusAtSchool questionnaire. TikTok closely followed with 60%. In contrast, primary school students preferred YouTube, with 59% stating they used it four or more times, followed by TikTok at 29%.

These insights come from CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura, a non-profit online educational project that brings statistics to life in English and Māori-medium classrooms. Supervised by teachers, students anonymously answer 34 questions in English or te reo Māori. The project is run by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Stats NZ. This year, around 35,000 students from 647 schools have participated in the project so far.

Apps Used Four or More Times the Day Before

High school students (Years 9-13):

• 61% Snapchat
• 60% TikTok
• 49% Instagram
• 48% YouTube
• 18% Discord
• 17% WhatsApp
• 12% Facebook
• 11% Pinterest
• 7% BeReal
• 5% Twitter

Primary school students (Years 3-8):

• 59% YouTube
• 29% TikTok
• 22% Snapchat
• 13% Discord
• 10% Instagram
• 9% WhatsApp
• 7% Pinterest
• 4% Facebook
• 2% Twitter
• 2% BeReal

Screen Time After School

High school students said they spent a median of 3.5 hours on screens after school the day before participating in the questionnaire. A quarter of them spent 5 hours or more on screens, while only 1.6% said they spent no time on screens after school that day.

Primary school students said they spent a median of 2 hours on screens after school the day before taking part, and a quarter of them spent 4 hours or more on screens. Additionally, 7.8% of the participants reported not spending any time on screens after school that day.

Co-director of CensusAtSchool Annel Patel says, “Screen time is a big issue in our home and my 8 and 10-year-old daughters don’t even have phones yet! We use tech to monitor their screen time, enforcing a daily two-hour limit and only allowing access to YouTube Kids. I’m mindful that my own screen habits set an example for my daughters’ healthy expectations.”

Online Blocking

Online blocking is also prevalent among high school students, with 33% stating that they had blocked someone online in the past week. This behaviour was more common with the younger high school students and females.

The CensusAtSchool team is collaborating with Tūturu – a modern approach to student wellbeing – to create a resource that helps students analyse and explore the CensusAtSchool data.

Annabel Prescott, Learning & Development Director for Tūturu at the NZ Drug Foundation, commented on the high percentage of students saying they had blocked someone within the past week. “Young people use blocking as a strategy to manage relationships and set boundaries. This is perceived by young people as very normal behaviour, and quite different from how adults engage with social media”.

“We are excited to be working with CensusAtSchool and health and education experts to develop a teaching resource that will help students explore data, what it means to them, their peers, and their wellbeing; and consider what health-promoting actions can be taken to help students navigate a digital world”.

The eleventh biennial edition of CensusAtSchool was launched on February 13 and will continue until the end of 2024. See the questions, which schools are taking part, and a live dashboard on CensusAtSchool’s website: www.censusatschool.org.nz.

Cookies and Cream is the favourite ice cream flavour by far according to over 20,000 young kiwis who have already taken part in this year’s CensusAtSchool survey. Almost a quarter of students chose Cookies and Cream as their favourite flavour, followed by 18% who chose Chocolate, and 11% who chose Vanilla.

Top 20 Favourite Ice Cream Flavours

1. Cookies and Cream
2. Chocolate
3. Vanilla
4. Mint Chocolate Chip
5. Strawberry
6. Hokey Pokey
7. Goody Goody Gum Drops
8. Cookie Dough
9. Boysenberry
10. Salted Caramel
11. Mango
12. Mint
13. Caramel
14. Orange Chocolate Chip
15. Chocolate Chip
16. French Vanilla
17. Chocolate Fudge
18. Neapolitan
19. Gold Rush
20. Passionfruit

In October 2022, Tip Top announced that it would stop making Goody Goody Gum Drops and Cookies and Cream 2-litre ice cream tubs. Cookies and Cream also won the Kids’ Choice Award at the New Zealand Ice Cream Awards last year.

The unique insight comes from CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura, a non-profit, online educational project that brings statistics to life. Supervised by teachers, students from Years 3-13 anonymously answer questions in English or te reo Māori on digital devices.

The eleventh biennial edition of CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura is expected to have the highest number of schools, teachers, and students participating. More than 40,000 schoolchildren are expected to participate in CensusAtSchool this year.

CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura is hosted by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in association with Stats NZ and the Ministry of Education. CensusAtSchool is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people.

CensusAtSchool New Zealand – TataurangaKiTeKura Aotearoa celebrates the launch of their eleventh biennial survey today to once again comprehensively chart students’ views of their own lives. The large national survey will give another intriguing glimpse into school students’ lives.

Thousands of primary, intermediate, and secondary school students around the country will share their views on issues as wide-ranging as their favourite ice cream flavour, the amount of time they spend on digital devices, whether or not they have blocked someone in the past week, opinions on alcohol, how many close friends they have, how happy they say they are overall, and their favourite sport to play.

The students are taking part in CensusAtSchool New Zealand – TataurangaKiTeKura Aotearoa, a non-profit, online educational project that aims to bring statistics to life in both English and Māori-medium classrooms. It is run by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Stats NZ.

Supervised by teachers, students from years 3-13 anonymously answer questions in English or te reo Māori on digital devices. Some questions involve practical activities such as measuring the length of their feet and weighing their laden school bags.

The eleventh biennial edition of CensusAtSchool is expected to have the highest number of schools, teachers, and students participating. More than 40,000 schoolchildren are expected to participate in CensusAtSchool this year. As of launch this morning, approximately 1,700 teachers from 900 schools had already registered.

Co-director Rachel Cunliffe says, “We’re passionate about getting real, relevant data about New Zealand students into their hands so that they can grow their data science superpower skills.”

Rachel Cunliffe, a former University of Auckland statistics lecturer who now runs a digital design company, says teachers are always looking for rich cross-curricular classroom activities.

Anne Patel, Professional Teaching Fellow and co-director says, “It’s so important that students experience every aspect of collecting and working with data, as they learn how data can be used to inform. Students are learning that data is all around us and they can “see” themselves in the data to get a real feel for patterns and variation.  The experience helps students see the importance of statistics in today’s world – and they love finding out what other students are thinking and doing.”

CensusAtSchool is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people.

Preview the questions and see which schools are taking part on CensusAtSchool’s website.

Three in ten Year 11-13 students want the legal vaping age to be lowered – but a similar number want it pushed even higher.

31% of the 2,678 senior students surveyed wanted the age for buying vaping products to be decreased, but 27% wanted it increased.

The insight comes from CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura, a non-profit, online educational project that brings statistics to life in both English and Māori-medium classrooms. Supervised by teachers, students from Years 3-13 anonymously answer 34 questions in English or te reo Māori on digital devices. The project is run by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Stats NZ.

This year, more than 19,000 students from 400 schools have taken part to date. Year 11-13 students (aged 15-18) were asked a series of additional questions, including “At what age do you think it should be legal to do the following? a) Drive b) Vote c) Buy alcohol d) Vape”. The results for the senior students taking part to date showed that 65% agreed with the legal driving age, 52% agreed with the legal voting age, 55% agreed with the legal age to buy alcohol, and 41% agreed with the legal age to buy vaping products. In addition, 27% wanted the legal voting age to be lowered to 16.

CensusAtSchool schools advisor Anne Patel says, “It is a good sign that 27% want the legal age for buying vaping products to be even older than it already is at 18. Young people need leadership from people they look up to who acknowledge and confront problems they’re facing, with the students themselves being drivers of the solutions.”

The senior students were also asked how they feel about the future. They were able to choose a range of options on a scale from ‘very positive’ to ‘very negative’. 8% felt very positive, 30% felt positive, 40% felt neutral, and 15% felt negative, and 7% felt very negative. Figures were similar for both Māori and New Zealand Europeans.

CensusAtSchool co-director Rachel Cunliffe says that this is a positive message for young people with everything going on in the world today.

The findings correspond with a Colmar Brunton/NZME survey in February and March of 1,000 adults in New Zealand which showed 42% felt that overall, things will improve in the next 12 months.

In other findings for the Year 11-13 students surveyed:

• 61% said they felt included at school always or very often, 31% said sometimes, and a further 8% said they rarely or never felt included at school.
• 57% said they did no paid work at a part-time job in the past week. 13% said they did up to 5 hours, 13% said 5 to 10 hours, and 13% said 10 to 20 hours. The remaining 4% said they did 20 or more hours of paid work at a part-time job in the past week.

CensusAtSchool runs every two years. This year’s census, the tenth, was launched on May 10 and runs until the end of 2022. More than 19,000 students from 400 schools have taken part to date.

See the questions, which schools are taking part, and a live dashboard of results on CensusAtSchool’s website.

Seven out of ten New Zealand school students say that learning at home was the same or better during lockdown compared to learning in school normally, the latest results of a nationwide survey suggests.

The insight comes from CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura, a non-profit, online educational project that brings statistics to life in both English and Māori-medium classrooms. Supervised by teachers, students from Years 3-13 anonymously answer 34 questions in English or te reo Māori on digital devices.

This data comes from the first 13,431 students to complete the survey. This year, students were asked how they felt about learning at home during lockdown compared to learning in school normally. Overall, seven out of ten students felt that their learning at home was either better, or the same, as learning in school. The numbers were slightly lower for those studying towards their NCEA qualifications; 64% for Year 11, 59% for Year 12, and 51% for Year 13 students.

CensusAtSchool co-director Rachel Cunliffe says that this insight is valuable for students, parents, schools, and the wider educational system.

“Our students today are digital natives and reflect on their lockdown learning as largely a positive experience. This indicates their adaptability and enjoyment of online distance learning.”

The length of screentime that students say they get after they get home from school has slightly increased since the last time CensusAtSchool was run in 2019. High school students now spend a median of three and a half hours on their phone, computer, tablet, TV, Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo, and the like – but a quarter spent five and a quarter hours or more in front of a screen.

In other findings, 42% of students say they often get their news from social media including YouTube. This figure was higher than all other forms of media asked about, including TV (32%), Google or other search engines (26%), news websites or apps (17%), radio (16%), podcasts (5%), and only 5% from print publications such as newspapers and magazines.

The survey also asked students about their social media usage in the past week. 82% said that they had watched YouTube compared with only 16% who had used Facebook. TikTok came in second with 53%, Instagram on 45%, and followed closely by Snapchat on 44%.

In the battle of video games, 37% played Minecraft in the past week, compared with 31% for Roblox and only 16% played Fortnite.

In other findings, the top 10 favourite animated movies are:

1. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train
2. The Lion King
3. Cars
4. Shrek
5. Raya and the Last Dragon
6. The Simpsons Movie
7. The Mitchells vs. the Machines
8. Frozen II
9. Moana
10. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

CensusAtSchool runs every two years. This year’s census, the tenth, was launched on May 10 and runs until the end of 2022. During that time, more than 30,000 school students are expected to participate. 2,173 teachers from 1,094 schools have already registered.
See the questions, which schools are taking part, and a live dashboard of results on CensusAtSchool’s website: www.censusatschool.org.nz.

CensusAtSchool NZ is hosted by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in association with Stats NZ and the Ministry of Education.

CensusAtSchool is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people and is carried out in Australia, Canada, the United States, Japan, and South Africa. The countries share some questions so comparisons can be made.

CensusAtSchool New Zealand – TataurangaKiTeKura Aotearoa celebrates the launch of their tenth biennial survey today to once again comprehensively chart children’s views of their own lives. The large national survey will give another intriguing glimpse into school children’s lives.

Thousands of primary, intermediate, and secondary school students around the country will share their views on issues as wide-ranging as climate change, the amount of time they spend on digital devices, where young people get their news from, and how they felt about lockdown learning. Senior students will be asked to also share their own attitudes to when they think it should be legal to drive, vote, buy alcohol, and vape.

The students are taking part in CensusAtSchool New Zealand – TataurangaKiTeKura Aotearoa, a non-profit, online educational project that aims to bring statistics to life in both English and Māori-medium classrooms. It is run by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Stats NZ.

Supervised by teachers, students from years 3-13 anonymously answer questions in English or te reo Māori on digital devices. Some questions involve practical activities such as measuring the length of their feet and weighing their laden school bags. 

The tenth biennial edition of CensusAtSchool is expected to have the highest number of schools, teachers, and students participating. More than 30,000 schoolchildren are expected to participate in CensusAtSchool this year. As of launch this morning, approximately 1,800 teachers from almost 1,000 schools had already registered – the highest figures ever. 

Co-director Rachel Cunliffe says, “We’re passionate about getting real, relevant data about New Zealand students into their hands so that they can grow their data science superpower skills.”

Rachel Cunliffe, a former University of Auckland statistics lecturer who now runs a digital design company, says teachers are always looking for rich cross-curricular classroom activities.

Professor Chris Wild, statistics education expert and co-director says, “The students experience the whole statistical cycle – they complete the survey and then use statistical methods to explore the data and tell the stories in it. It helps students see the importance of statistics in today’s world – and they love finding out what other students are thinking and doing.”

CensusAtSchool is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people and is carried out in Australia, Canada, the United States, Japan, and South Africa. The countries share some questions so comparisons can be made.

Preview the questions and see which schools are taking part on CensusAtSchool’s website: www.censusatschool.org.nz

CensusAtSchool New Zealand – TataurangaKiTeKura Aotearoa celebrates the launch of their tenth biennial survey next month to once again comprehensively chart children’s views of their own lives.

From May 10, the voice of Kiwi students will be heard on issues as wide-ranging as climate change, the amount of time they spend on digital devices, and their own attitudes to when they think it should be legal to drive, vote, buy alcohol, and vape.

New to the survey in 2021 is a question that explores where young people get their news from and how they felt about lockdown learning.

The survey now includes improved bi-lingual support with the ability to toggle between English and te reo Māori.

Another new feature includes an audio option for the English questionnaire to support students with reading difficulties.

CensusAtSchool New Zealand – TataurangaKiTeKura Aotearoa, is a non-profit, online educational project that aims to bring statistics to life in both English and Māori-medium classrooms. Supervised by teachers, students from Years 3-13 anonymously answer 34 questions in English or te reo Māori, and later explore the results in class. CensusAtSchool runs every two years, and in 2019, more than 32,000 students took part, representing approximately 500 schools and 1,000 teachers.

You can preview the questions here. See the registered schools.

CensusAtSchool is a collaborative project involving teachers, the University of Auckland’s Department of Statistics, Stats NZ, and the Ministry of Education.

It is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people and is carried out in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the US, Japan, and South Africa. The countries share some questions so comparisons can be made.

In New Zealand, CensusAtSchool is co-directed by Prof Chris Wild of the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland and Rachel Cunliffe, a former lecturer in the department who owns web design studio cre8d design and is a commentator on youth culture and online communications. She is the principal media spokesperson for CensusAtSchool and can be contacted at census@stat.auckland.ac.nz or phone 027 3833 746. A high-quality, copyright-free photo of Rachel is available for download here.

Key dates:

• May 10: CensusAtSchool survey goes live and schools start taking part.
• May 24*: Interesting initial statistics from the survey data released to media.
• May 31*: Second release of statistics from the survey data released to media.

* Date dependent on response rate

Smoking cigarettes is worse teenage behaviour than smoking marijuana, according to Year 11-13 students from New Zealand schools. Furthermore, they think that their parents would agree with them.

The insight comes from CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura, a non-profit, online educational project that brings statistics to life in both English and Māori-medium classrooms. Supervised by teachers, students from Years 5-13 anonymously answer 30 questions in English or te reo Māori on digital devices. The project is run by the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland in partnership with the Ministry of Education and StatsNZ.

This year, more than 2,840 Year 11-13 students (aged 15-18) only were asked: How wrong do you think it is for someone your age to a) drink alcohol b) smoke tobacco cigarettes; c) smoke e-cigarettes d) smoke marijuana. They were able to choose a range of options on a scale from ‘not at all wrong’ to ‘very wrong’. The results showed that 61% of students felt that it was very wrong for people their age to smoke cigarettes, followed by smoking marijuana (52%), smoking e-cigarettes (44%), and drinking alcohol (22%).

Students were also asked how their parents/caregivers would feel about them doing the same things. The results were smoking cigarettes (81% of students felt that parents would consider this very wrong); marijuana (76%); e-cigarettes (69%) and alcohol (33%).

CensusAtSchool co-director Rachel Cunliffe says that the finding that smoking cigarettes, which is legal, was rated as worse behaviour than smoking marijuana, which is illegal for recreational use, was surprising. “Our figures can’t tell us why students perceived smoking cigarettes as worse than smoking marijuana,” she says. “However, we can speculate that it has something to do with what they see and hear around them and changing societal attitudes.” 

For example, New Zealand has had an anti-smoking law since 1990, which has discouraged and denormalised smoking for all of these students’ lives and most of their parents’ existence. Twenty-five years ago, one in four people aged 15 or over smoked daily; today, the tally is 13%. 

In contrast, although marijuana is illegal, it is the most-used illicit drug in New Zealand, with researchers estimating that by the age of 21, around 80% of young people will have used marijuana at least once. Pressure to legalise marijuana for recreational use has built to the extent that New Zealanders will choose whether or not to legalise and regulate it in a referendum alongside the general election next year.  

In other findings:

• The older teens became, the less likely they were to see drinking alcohol as a bad thing for people their age to do. In Year 11, 28% of students saw drinking alcohol as very wrong. By Year 13, that figure was 12%. 
• As students aged, they perceived that their caregivers relaxed over the issue of them drinking as well. One in two Year 11 students (42%) felt that their parents would see drinking alcohol as a bad thing for people their age to do. By Year 13, that figure was one in six (17%).  
• However, this was not the case with cigarettes, with less of a drop as students aged. In Year 11, 65% felt that cigarette smoking by their age group was very wrong, compared to 55% in Year 13. 
• The figures for perceived parental attitudes towards teens smoking cigarettes did not drop much with age. A total of 82% of Year 11s said their parents would view their age group smoking as very wrong, compared to 79% of Year 13 students.

CensusAtSchool runs every two years. This year’s census, the ninth, was launched on March 4. More than 23,000 students from 458 schools have taken part to date. See if your local school has participated here.  

CensusAtSchool is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people and is carried out in Australia, Canada, the United States, Japan and South Africa. The countries share some questions so comparisons can be made.

One in three New Zealand high-school students say they spend too much time on social media, the latest results of a nationwide survey reveal.   

The insight comes from CensusAtSchool TataurangaKiTeKura, a non-profit, online educational project that brings statistics to life in both English and Māori-medium classrooms. Supervised by teachers, students from Years 5-13 anonymously answer 30 questions in English or te reo Māori on digital devices.

This data comes from the first 12,000 students to complete the census. This year, students were asked whether the time they spent on social media accounts was about right, too little or too much. Overall, one in three high-school students felt that their use of social media was excessive. This was highest among girls, with 40% spending too much time on social media, compared with just 20% for boys.

CensusAtSchool co-director Rachel Cunliffe says that the findings suggest that students are well aware of public discussion about the drawbacks of social media. “Connecting with peers is important to young people, and they seem to know about the pros and cons of using social media. The fact they’re reflecting on their own use of social media is a good thing.”  

In other findings, one in three boys in primary school (33%) and secondary school (30%) believe that their time spent playing video games is excessive. However, 45% of primary girls and 65% of high-school girls said they don’t get enough time playing video games.    

In other findings:

• Facebook has fallen from favour with younger high-school students, with Instagram taking its place. In 2011, 80% of Year 9 students had a Facebook profile. This steadily declined to 33% in 2019. Now, 78% of Year 9 students have Instagram, up from 66% in 2015.
• 49% of high schoolers with a phone say that they always or often check for messages and notifications as soon as they wake up in the morning.
• Half of high-school students say a weekend without their phone would make them feel angry, anxious, frustrated, sad, or lonely. Students could choose from as many as applied from angry, anxious, frustrated, happy, lonely, relieved, sad, neutral, and other. A total of 12% chose angry, 15% chose anxious, 14% chose lonely, 14% chose sad, and 24% said that they would feel frustrated.

CensusAtSchool runs every two years. This year’s census, the ninth, was launched on March 4 and runs until July 5. During that time, up to 30,000 school children are expected to participate. More than 1,990 teachers from 906 schools have registered; see if your local school is taking part here.  

CensusAtSchool is part of an international effort to boost statistical capability among young people and is carried out in Australia, Canada, the United States, Japan and South Africa. The countries share some questions so comparisons can be made.