The intention of providing this provisional dataset is to make available the boundaries that will be used for the local body elections being held in October 2019. Local boards are set up under the Local Government Act 2002 and Local Electoral Act 2001. Their purpose is to administer the affairs of communities with populations not less than 1,500 within rural, urban, or metropolitan districts of a territorial authority.

A community board’s functions, powers, and duties are delegated at the discretion of its parent territorial authority and these may differ between local boards. Local boards and their boundaries are reviewed in the year before the three-yearly local government elections. Local boards fall within the community board classification but their boundaries are changed by way of reorganisation applications under the Local Government Act 2002, and not through the representation review process. Local board names can be changed as part of a representation review process.

Subdivisions are set up under the Local Government Act 2002 and Local Electoral Act 2001. A subdivision is a division of a community or local board area for electoral purposes. Subdivisions are defined at meshblock level, and do not coincide with the statistical area 1 (SA1) geography or the statistical area 2 (SA2) geography. A number of territorial authorities do not have subdivisions, and if they do, the subdivisions do not necessarily cover the whole territorial authority area. Subdivisions nest within community or local boards.

Where a community or local board is divided into subdivisions all of the community or local board area must be included in a subdivision. Wards were originally set up within any territorial authority with a population of at least 20,000. Wards are defined under the Local Electoral Act 2001 and result from dividing a territorial authority for electoral purposes.

The ward system was designed to allow for the recognition of communities within a territorial authority and to increase community involvement in the local government system. Territorial authorities can now choose whether they would like to maintain electoral wards. As a result, the number of wards has steadily decreased since they were first created in 1989. Ward boundaries are reviewed in the year before the three-yearly local government elections.