Why Harry Styles will have to fill in a 2023 Census form while touring New Zealand

In just under two weeks, Harry Styles will bring his Love On Tour show to Auckland but aside from performing to a sold out show, there is one very important task the star will have to complete.

Completing the New Zealand 2023 Census.

Following an enquiry via Twitter, a Census NZ spokesperson has revealed every single person who is in Aotearoa on Tuesday, March 7, will have to partake in the statistic collecting service.

There are no special exceptions – not even for a global superstar.

In a Twitter exchange between NZ magazine, Coup De Main and Census NZ yesterday, they asked the Government run service: “Important question for 2023 Census”.

“Will Harry Styles also have to do the census on March 7 with the rest of New Zealand?”

They accompanied the tweet with a photo of Styles signing an autograph in 2014.

Photo / Twitter

It soon earned a reply from a Census spokesperson who said: “Kia ora @coupdemain CC: the country. Thank you for this important query”.

“Everyone who is in Aotearoa New Zealand on census night (Tuesday, March 7) needs to be counted in the census,” it continued.

“This includes tourists, visitors and former members of One Direction.”

They signed off the tweet with the same photo of Styles that had been playfully edited.

Calling it an “artists impression”, the photo was edited to include a pink square on the table with “census” drawn on it to give the impression that Styles was filling out the form.

The tweet soon went viral and resulted in further questions from the public, one of which asked: “Will there be a Census question about how awesome is Harry Styles, so that we can all agree on something just once this year?”

Census NZ’s Twitter account replied: “Kia ora Dr Wilson. Thank you for asking. Unfortunately, there is no census question on that topic.

“However, each of our answers to the census can convey our own awesomeness levels, and this will include those from Harry Styles. These answers will, of course, stay private.”

The NZ Census is conducted to determine not only the population of the country but also to better understand Kiwis’ lives.

It includes a range of topics, from population demographics, location, ethnicity, to income, work, disability and even cigarette smoking, among other things.

Styles – who is worth an estimated US$120 million (NZ$192m) – will be required to fill out these questions along with anyone else who is in the country on March 7.

The last country-wide census took place on March 6 in 2018.

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.