1. Introduction
This is the sixth annual release of the Ministry of Commerce's Information Technology Statistics paper. This paper includes:
- updated figures for IT hardware imports and exports;
- updated figures for trade in software and services and the size of the New Zealand information technology (IT) market;
- updated and revised figures for employment in segments of the IT industry;
- updated information on the numbers of computers in New Zealand homes compared with a selection of other electronic amenities;
- updated figures on the size of the Internet in New Zealand; and
- updated figures on the number of World Wide Web sites.
New information from a 1998 survey of IT in Schools has been used to provide updated information on:
- the number of computers in New Zealand schools; and
- the number of Internet connections in schools.
For the convenience of readers, information which is derived from the 1996 census has been carried over unchanged from the previous paper as published in March 1988. This information includes figures showing those employed in the IT industry and separately breakdowns of those employed in the IT industry by occupation, skill level, age, sex and ethnicity.
1.1 Acknowledgements
The majority of the figures in this paper have been sourced from Statistics New Zealand. Other sources are credited specifically where they have been used. Some of the figures are taken from a survey of IT businesses conducted by Statistics New Zealand and jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce, the Information Technology Association of New Zealand, Tradenz and Statistics New Zealand. Information on the use of information and communications technology in schools is derived from a Ministry of Education survey of schools in 1996, research by the Telecom Education Foundation from 1993 to 1996 and the Information Technology Advisory Group Survey of IT in Schools carried out in August 1998.
1.2 Defining Information Technology
As well as the traditional data processing industries, telecommunications and broadcasting are shown in many of the figures in this paper. This reflects the fact that these industries process information using technological means, and the increasingly blurred distinctions between these sectors.
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