The establishment of a single point of access for approved users to unit record data was a key recommendation of the Top Down Review.
Top Down Review (PDF, 267KB)
Statistics New Zealand provides access to microdata for approved researchers only, with access governed by Statistics New Zealand's Microdata Access Policy. The goal of microdata access is to provide data for statistical use, whilst protecting the identity of respondents according to the terms of the Statistics Act 1975.
Access to microdata from official statistical collections is available through Statistics New Zealand's Data Laboratory and the Confidentialised Unit Record File (CURF) programme. The Data Laboratory provides carefully controlled access to detailed microdata at Statistics New Zealand's offices in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch. Approved researchers can get access to Basic or Expanded CURFs from their own computer via CD-ROM or the AtoM (Access to Microdata) service.