Total annual expenses, from staff and public services to benefits and subsidies.
Actual expenditure, not budget forecasts. Treasury removes transfers within government from the national total. Capital purchases sit separately.
What is included in these figures?
Total expenses include staff, services, benefits, grants, depreciation and financing costs across the Crown reporting group, including state-owned enterprises. These are accounting expenses, including non-cash charges. They exclude capital purchases and the separately reported gains/losses.
Agency figures use the reporting scope named in each source. Departmental accounts exclude payments administered for the Crown. Do not add agency rows together: transfers, capital charges and reporting groups overlap.
Contractors & consultants is a separate PSC operating-expenditure return, not a new cost to add to Treasury totals. It excludes capitalised contractor work and can differ from annual-report categories.
Where government expenses go
Two views of the same national total. Expand a cost type for more detail.
Where New Zealand's public money goes — councils on a map, central government in the ledger.
How to read it
Territorial shows the 67 city/district councils' own spending. Regional shows the 11 regional councils, with the six unitary councils in both tabs. Central govt shows Treasury's national total expenses and cost/service categories, followed by sourced agency expenses and annual-report cost breakdowns. Agency coverage is incomplete. The contractor/consultant column is a separate PSC operating-spend reference.
Colour is ranked sixths, not linear dollars. Per resident divides the selected activity’s spending by the same year’s population. Budget % divides that activity’s spending by the council’s total operating expenditure. A total-budget share of 100% is expected; use dollars per resident to compare total spending.
Hover or focus a council for a comparison, or open its detail and choose Compare all councils. Compare total dollars, dollars per resident, or budget share. Multiples divide each council’s selected measure by the selected council’s measure. Ranks run highest first; ties share a rank. Medians include reported zeros and exclude unavailable values. Search does not filter comparisons or category-pill totals.
Insights for media is a separate page of draft findings generated automatically from the council figures. They are labelled AI-generated and have not been checked by anyone — verify against the source data before quoting.
Honest footnotes
The app uses current council entities. Auckland’s first available operating total here is 2011; earlier predecessor councils are excluded. Historical sums are not complete national totals. Some June 2025 returns use Stats NZ estimates from annual plans. Population estimates may be revised. Where the app lacks same-year population, it shows — for per-resident figures.
Roading and Transportation are separate published activities and can coexist. Category labels and council responsibilities differ. Unitary councils perform both territorial and regional functions. This app excludes separately reported CCO entities, including Auckland Transport and Auckland Unlimited, so council totals are not consolidated council-group expenditure. Higher per-resident spending alone says nothing about waste or service quality.
Each activity has five published cost types: purchases and services, staff, depreciation, interest, and grants. Depreciation is a non-cash accounting cost. Capital investment is separate. “All other activities” has no finer activity detail here. Purchases include all bought-in goods and services, not just consultants. Negative entries and reported zeros remain in the calculations. The app flags incomplete breakdowns and differences from the published total rather than inventing balancing costs.
Where the data comes from
The council map uses Stats NZ financial, population and boundary data. Central government figures come from the Public Service Commission. Exact source links appear in each council detail and under Sources.
Sources for the map and agency figures. Financial datasets use the scripts in data/.
Generated from Stats NZ figures · not checked by a person
Insights for media AI-generated
Draft findings about the chosen council, computed automatically from the figures behind this site. They read like story hooks, not conclusions — verify against the source before quoting.
Spending more per resident is not evidence of waste or of better services. Small populations and one-off projects can skew ratios. Figures are operating expenditure; scope and reporting differ between councils, and some returns use Stats NZ estimates.