WELLINGTON, March 1 (Xinhua) -- More than half a million New Zealanders around the country have already filled in their 2018 Census online, with the official census day less than a week away, the statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.

"We're delighted to see that so many people have used computers, tablets or smartphones to fill in their forms," 2018 Census general manager Denise McGregor said.

Since Feb. 19, when the online system opened, there have been responses from people aged up to 100 years old, McGregor said.

Stats NZ has a target of 70 percent of all census forms filled in online, but anyone can ask for a paper form, instead, she said, adding that more than 500,000 people have completed the census online so far, and there are more online responses from people aged 65 and over than from people aged 15 to 25.

"As more people fill in their forms online, the quality of census data is expected to be as good as or better than previous census collections," McGregor said.

Everyone in New Zealand is being sent letters with access codes, which they can use to fill in the form online. That means this time people won't get a knock on the door about the census, as they have in the past, she said.

Instead, field teams are working directly with places like hotels, hospitals, and camping grounds to help people in those places get and fill in the census, McGregor said, adding there are also teams working in remote rural areas and with the homeless population.