Demographics of New Zealand

The demographics of New Zealand encompass the gender, ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds of the 4.4 million people living in New Zealand. New Zealanders, informally known as "Kiwis", predominantly live in urban areas within the North Island. The five largest cities are Auckland (with one-third of the country's population), Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and Tauranga. Few New Zealanders live outside the main North and South Islands. Waiheke Island (near Auckland) is easily the most populated smaller island with 7,689 residents, while Great Barrier Island, the Chatham and Pitt Islands and Stewart Island each have populations below 1,000. New Zealand is part of a realm and the most people born in the realm's external territories of Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands and Niue are considered New Zealanders. In 2006, more people who identified themselves with these islands lived in New Zealand than on the Islands themselves.

The majority of New Zealand's population is of European descent (69 percent identify as "New Zealand European"), with the indigenous Māori being the largest minority (14.6 percent), followed by Asians (9.2 percent) and non-Māori Pacific Islanders (6.9 percent). This is reflected in immigration, with most new migrants coming from the United Kingdom and Ireland, although the numbers from Asia are increasing. In 2001 an estimated 460,000 New Zealanders live abroad, mostly in Australia, representing nearly one-quarter of the highly-skilled worker force. The largest Māori iwi is Ngapuhi with 122,211 people or 24 percent of the Māori population. Auckland is the most ethnically diverse region in New Zealand with 56.5 percent identifying as Europeans, 18.9 percent as Asian, 11.1 percent as Māori and 14.4 percent as other Pacific Islanders. The ethnicity of the population aged under 18 years is more diverse (72 percent European, 24 percent Māori, 12 percent Pacific and 10 percent Asian) than the population aged 65 years or older (91 percent European, 5 percent Māori, 4 percent Asian and 2 percent Pacific). Recent increases in interracial marriages has resulted in the more people identifying with more than one ethnic group.

English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language are the official languages, with English predominant. New Zealand English is mostly non-rhotic and sounds similar to Australian English, with a common exception being the centralisation of the short i. Maori has undergone a process of revitalisation and is spoken by 4.1 percent of the population. New Zealand has an adult literacy rate of 99 percent and over half of the population aged 15 to 29 hold a tertiary qualification. In the adult population 14.2 percent have a bachelor's degree or higher, 30.4 percent have some form of secondary qualification as their highest qualification and 22.4 percent have no formal qualification. Just over half the population identify as Christians, with Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam being the most significant minority religions. New Zealand has no state religion and just over a third of the population do not have a religion. Farming is a major occupation in New Zealand, although more people are employed as sales assistants. Most New Zealanders are on wage or salary income, with a median personal income in 2006 of $24,400. Unemployment was at 6.8 percent during the June 2010 quarter and most New Zealanders do some form of voluntary work.