Demographics of New Zealand

Demographics of New Zealand
Population pyramid of New Zealand in 2023
Population	5,338,500
• Year	2023 (Stats NZ estimate)
Density	19.9/km2 (51.5/sq mi)
Growth rate	2.1% (Stats NZ projection)[1]
Birth rate	11.4 per 1000 pop. (2022)
Death rate	5.5 per 1000 pop. (2022)
Life expectancy
• male	80.3 years[2]
• female	83.7 years[2]
Fertility rate	1.56 births per woman (2023)
Infant mortality rate	3.53 per 1000 live births (2023)
Net migration rate	14.72 per 1000 pop.[1]
Age structure
0–14 years	19.6%[1]
15–64 years	65.5%[1]
65 and over	14.9%[1]
Sex ratio
Total	0.97 males/female[1]
Under 15	1.05 males/female[1]
15–64 years	0.97 males/female[1]
65 and over	0.87 males/female[1]
Nationality
Nationality	New Zealander
Major ethnic	European 67.8%[3]
Minor ethnic	Māori 17.8% Asian 17.3% Pacific peoples 8.9% [n 1][4]
Language
Official	English Māori New Zealand Sign Language
Spoken	English 95.37% Chinese (all variants) 4.42% Te Reo Māori (all dialects) 3.96% Gagana Sāmoa 2.17% Hindi 1.48% French 1.17% Tagalog 0.97% New Zealand Sign Language 0.5% [5]

The demographics of New Zealand encompass the gender, ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds of the 5.3 million^[6] people living in New Zealand. New Zealanders predominantly live in urban areas on the North Island. The five largest cities are Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, and Tauranga. Few New Zealanders live on New Zealand's smaller islands. Waiheke Island (near Auckland) is easily the most populated smaller island with 9,140 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 most people born in the realm's external territories of Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands and Niue are entitled to New Zealand passports.

As at the 2018 census, the majority of New Zealand's population of European descent (70 percent; often referred to as Pākehā), with the indigenous Māori being the largest minority (16.5 percent), followed by Asians (15.3 percent), and non-Māori Pacific Islanders known collectively as Pasifika (9.0 percent).^[4] This is reflected in immigration, with most new migrants coming from Britain and Ireland, although the numbers from Asia in particular are increasing. Auckland is the most ethnically diverse region in New Zealand with 53.5 percent identifying as Europeans, 28.2 percent as Asian, 11.5 percent as Māori, 15.5 percent as Pasifika, and 2.3 percent as Middle Eastern, Latin American or African (MELAA).^[7] New Zealand is considered by some to be unique among Western countries for its high levels of ethnic intermarriage,^[8] which has historically been viewed with tolerance.^[9][10][8] According to a 2006 study, Māori have on average roughly 43% European ancestry, although the notion of being "mixed-race" is uncommon.^[11][12]

English, Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language are the official languages, with English being predominant and understood by the vast majority of Māori speakers. Significant minorities speak Chinese, Samoan, Hindi, French, and Tagalog. New Zealand English is mostly non-rhotic, but has distinct rhotic dialects as well. Rhoticity is widespread among Pasifika and Māori and is becoming increasingly common across the upper North Island.^[13] The closest English dialect to non-rhotic New Zealand English is Australian English, but they have several key distinctions, such as the New Zealand centralisation of the short i. The Māori language has undergone a process of revitalisation and is spoken by 4 percent of the population. New Zealand has an adult literacy rate of 99 percent and over half of the population aged 15–29 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. As at the 2018 census, 37 percent of the population identify as Christians, with Hinduism and Buddhism being the largest minority religions; almost half of the population (48.5 percent) is irreligious.^[4]

Farming is a major occupation in New Zealand, although more people are employed as sales assistants. Most New Zealanders earn wage or salary income, with a median weekly income in 2022 of NZ$848.^[14]

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