Demographics of New Zealand - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

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 Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. New Zealanders

New Zealanders

New Zealanders, colloquially known as Kiwis, are citizens of New Zealand. New Zealand is a multiethnic society, and home to people of many different national origins...

, informally known as "Kiwi

Kiwi (people)

Kiwi is the nickname used internationally for people from New Zealand, as well as being a relatively common self-reference. The name derives from the kiwi, a flightless bird, which is native to, and the national symbol of, New Zealand...

s", predominantly live in urban areas within the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

. The four largest cities are Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

(with one-third of the country's population), Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

and Hamilton

Hamilton, New Zealand

Hamilton is the centre of New Zealand's fourth largest urban area, and Hamilton City is the country's fourth largest territorial authority. Hamilton is in the Waikato Region of the North Island, approximately south of Auckland...

. Few New Zealanders live outside the main North and South Island

South Island

The South Island is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand, the other being the more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman Sea, to the south and east by the Pacific Ocean...

s. Waiheke Island

Waiheke Island

Waiheke Island is an island in the Hauraki Gulf of New Zealand, located about from Auckland.The island is the second-largest in the Hauraki Gulf after Great Barrier Island. It is the most populated, with nearly 8,000 permanent residents plus another estimated 3,400 who have second or holiday homes...

(near Auckland) is easily the most populated smaller island with 7,689 residents, while Great Barrier Island

Great Barrier Island

Great Barrier Island is a large island of New Zealand, situated to the north-east of central Auckland in the outer Hauraki Gulf. With an area of it is the fourth-largest island of New Zealand's main chain of islands, with its highest point, Mount Hobson, rising...

, the Chatham and Pitt Island

Chatham Islands

The Chatham Islands are an archipelago and New Zealand territory in the Pacific Ocean consisting of about ten islands within a radius, the largest of which are Chatham Island and Pitt Island. Their name in the indigenous language, Moriori, means Misty Sun...

s and Stewart Island each have populations below 1,000. New Zealand is part of a realm

Realm of New Zealand

The Realm of New Zealand is the entire area in which the Queen in right of New Zealand is head of state. The Realm comprises New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau and the Ross Dependency in Antarctica, and is defined by a 1983 Letters Patent constituting the office of Governor-General of New...

and the most people born in the realm's external territories of Tokelau

Tokelau

Tokelau is a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400...

, the Ross Dependency

Ross Dependency

The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160° east to 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60° south...

, the Cook Islands

Cook Islands

The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...

and Niue

Niue

Niue , is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean. It is commonly known as the "Rock of Polynesia", and inhabitants of the island call it "the Rock" for short. Niue is northeast of New Zealand in a triangle between Tonga to the southwest, the Samoas to the northwest, and the Cook Islands to...

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

New Zealand European

The term New Zealand European refers to New Zealanders of European descent who identify as New Zealand Europeans rather than some other ethnic group...

(69 percent), with the indigenous Māori being the largest minority (14.6 percent), followed by Asian

Asian people

Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...

s (9.2 percent) and non-Māori Polynesians

Polynesians

The Polynesian peoples is a grouping of various ethnic groups that speak Polynesian languages, a branch of the Oceanic languages within the Austronesian languages, and inhabit Polynesia. They number approximately 1,500,000 people...

(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. This number has reportedly surged to over 600,000 as of 2010. The largest Māori iwi

Iwi

In New Zealand society, iwi form the largest everyday social units in Māori culture. The word iwi means "'peoples' or 'nations'. In "the work of European writers which treat iwi and hapū as parts of a hierarchical structure", it has been used to mean "tribe" , or confederation of tribes,...

is Ngapuhi

Ngapuhi

Ngāpuhi is a Māori iwi located in the Northland region of New Zealand, and centred in the Hokianga, the Bay of Islands and Whāngārei.Ngāpuhi has the largest affiliation of any New Zealand iwi, with 122,214 people registered , and formed from 150 hapu, with 55 marae.-Foundations:The founding...

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 marriage

Interracial marriage

Interracial marriage occurs when two people of differing racial groups marry. This is a form of exogamy and can be seen in the broader context of miscegenation .-Legality of interracial marriage:In the Western world certain jurisdictions have had regulations...

s has resulted in the more people identifying with more than one ethnic group.

English

New Zealand English

New Zealand English is the dialect of the English language used in New Zealand.The English language was established in New Zealand by colonists during the 19th century. It is one of "the newest native-speaker variet[ies] of the English language in existence, a variety which has developed and...

, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language

New Zealand Sign Language

New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the Deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006, alongside Te Reo Māori....

are the official languages, with English predominant. New Zealand English is mostly non-rhotic and sounds similar to Australian English

Australian English

Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....

, with a common exception being the centralisation

Central vowel

A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel...

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

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

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

State religion

A state religion is a religious body or creed officially endorsed by the state...

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.

New Zealanders

While the demonym

Demonym

A demonym , also referred to as a gentilic, is a name for a resident of a locality. A demonym is usually – though not always – derived from the name of the locality; thus, the demonym for the people of England is English, and the demonym for the people of Italy is Italian, yet, in english, the one...

for a New Zealand citizen is New Zealander, the informal "Kiwi

Kiwi (people)

" is commonly used both internationally and by locals. The name derives from the kiwi

Kiwi

Kiwi are flightless birds endemic to New Zealand, in the genus Apteryx and family Apterygidae.At around the size of a domestic chicken, kiwi are by far the smallest living ratites and lay the largest egg in relation to their body size of any species of bird in the world...

, a native flightless bird

Flightless bird

Flightless birds are birds which lack the ability to fly, relying instead on their ability to run or swim. They are thought to have evolved from flying ancestors. There are about forty species in existence today, the best known being the ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea, kiwi, and penguin...

, which is the national symbol of New Zealand. The Māori loanword Pākehā

Pakeha

Pākehā is a Māori language word for New Zealanders who are "of European descent". They are mostly descended from British and to a lesser extent Irish settlers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, although some Pākehā have Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Yugoslav or other ancestry...

usually refers to New Zealanders of European descent, although some reject this appellation, and some Māori use it to refer to all non-Polynesian New Zealanders. Most people born in New Zealand or one of the realm's

Realm of New Zealand

external territories (Tokelau

Tokelau

Tokelau is a territory of New Zealand in the South Pacific Ocean that consists of three tropical coral atolls with a combined land area of 10 km2 and a population of approximately 1,400...

, the Ross Dependency

Ross Dependency

The Ross Dependency is a region of Antarctica defined by a sector originating at the South Pole, passing along longitudes 160° east to 150° west, and terminating at latitude 60° south...

, the Cook Islands

Cook Islands

The Cook Islands is a self-governing parliamentary democracy in the South Pacific Ocean in free association with New Zealand...

and Niue

Niue

) before 2006 are New Zealand citizens

New Zealand nationality law

New Zealand citizenship was created on 1 January 1949 by the British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act 1948...

. Further conditions apply for those born from 2006 onwards.

Population

In 2011 New Zealand has an estimated population of approximately 4.4 million, up from the 4,027,947 recorded in the 2006 census. The median child birthing age was 30 and the fertility rate is 2.1 births per woman in 2010. In Māori populations the median age is 26 and fertility rate 2.8. In 2010 the Age-standardized mortality rate was 3.8 deaths per 1000 (down from 4.8 in 2000) and the infant mortality rate for the total population was 5.1 deaths per 1000 live births. The life expectancy

Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the expected number of years of life remaining at a given age. It is denoted by ex, which means the average number of subsequent years of life for someone now aged x, according to a particular mortality experience...

of a New Zealand child born in 2008 was 82.4 years for females, and 78.4 years for males. Life expectancy at birth is forecast to increase from 80 years to 85 years in 2050 and infant mortality is expected to decline. In 2050 the population is forecast to reach 5.3 million, the median age to rise from 36 years to 43 years and the percentage of people 60 years of age and older rising from 18 percent to 29 percent.

Geographic location

Over three-quarters of New Zealands population live in the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

(76 percent) with one-third of the total population living in the Auckland region

Auckland Region

The Auckland Region was one of the sixteen regions of New Zealand, named for the city of Auckland, the country's largest urban area. With one third of the nation's residents, it was by far the biggest population and economy of any region of New Zealand, but the second-smallest land area.On 1...

. This region is also the fastest growing, accounting for 46 percent of New Zealands total population growth. Most Māori live in the North Island (87 percent), although less than a quarter (24 percent) live in Auckland. New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with 86 percent of the population living in an urban area. About 72 percent of the population live in the 16 main urban areas (population of 30,000 or more) and 53 percent live in the four largest cities of Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington, and Hamilton

Hamilton, New Zealand

.

Approximately 14 percent of the population live in four different categories of rural areas as defined by Statistics New Zealand

Statistics New Zealand

Statistics New Zealand is the national statistical office of New Zealand.-Organisation:New Zealand's Minister of Statistics is Maurice Williamson who serves as a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives and holds several other posts within government...

. About 18 percent of the rural population live in areas that have a high urban influence (roughly 12.9 people per square kilometre), many working in the main urban area. Rural areas with moderate urban influence and a population density of about 6.5 people per square kilometre account for 26 percent of the rural population. Areas with low urban influence where the majority of the residents work in the rural area house approximately 42 percent of the rural population. Remote rural areas with a density of less than 1 person per square kilometre account for about 14 percent of the rural population.

The vast majority of the population live on the main North and South Island

South Island

s, with New Zealand's major inhabited smaller islands being Waiheke Island

Waiheke Island

(7,689), Great Barrier Island

Great Barrier Island

(850), Chatham and Pitt Islands

Chatham Islands

(609), and Stewart Island (402). In 2006, 15,342 people were residents of the Cook Islands, with two thirds living on Rarotonga

Rarotonga

Rarotonga is the most populous island of the Cook Islands, with a population of 14,153 , out of the country's total population of 19,569.The Cook Islands' Parliament buildings and international airport are on Rarotonga...

, and the other third spread over the other 14 islands. The resident population of Tokelau and Niue was 1,466 and 1,625 respectively in 2006. At the time 58,008 Cook Islanders, 22,476 Niueans
and 6,819 Tokelauans lived in New Zealand.

Immigration

The Māori were the first people to reach New Zealand, followed by the early European settlers. Following colonisation, immigrants were predominantly from Britain, Ireland and Australia due to restrictive policies similar to the white Australian policies

White Australia policy

The White Australia policy comprises various historical policies that intentionally restricted "non-white" immigration to Australia. From origins at Federation in 1901, the polices were progressively dismantled between 1949-1973....

. There was also significant Dutch, Dalmatia

Dalmatia

Dalmatia is a historical region on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. It stretches from the island of Rab in the northwest to the Bay of Kotor in the southeast. The hinterland, the Dalmatian Zagora, ranges from fifty kilometers in width in the north to just a few kilometers in the south....

n, Italian, and German immigration together with indirect European immigration through Australia, North America, South America and South Africa. Following the Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

policies were relaxed and migrant diversity increased. In 2008–09, a target of 45,000 migrants was set by the New Zealand Immigration Service (plus a 5,000 tolerance). Twenty-three percent of New Zealand's population were born overseas, most of whom live in the Auckland region. While most have still come from the United Kingdom and Ireland (29 percent), immigration from East Asia (mostly mainland China, but with substantial numbers also from Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and Hong Kong) is rapidly increasing the number of people from those countries.For further detail within East Asia: Assuming a medium level projection a further 250,000 Asian migrants are expected between 2006 and 2026. The number of fee-paying international student

International student

According to Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development , international students are those who travel to a country different from their own for the purpose of tertiary study. Despite that, the definition of international students varies in each country in accordance to their own national...

s increased sharply in the late 1990s, with more than 20,000 studying in public tertiary institutions

Tertiary education

Tertiary education, also referred to as third stage, third level, and post-secondary education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education, such as a high school, secondary school, university-preparatory school...

in 2002.

To be eligible for entry under the skilled migrant plan applicants are assessed by an approved doctor for good health, provide a police certificate

Police certificate

A police certificate is an official document issued by police or government agency of a country to enumerate any criminal records that the applicant may or may not have...

to prove good character and speak sufficient English. Migrants working in some occupation (mainly health) must be registered with the appropriate profession body before they can work within that area. Skilled migrants are assessed by Immigration New Zealand

Immigration New Zealand

Immigration New Zealand or INZ is a part of the Workforce group of the New Zealand Department of Labour. It is responsible for managing the benefits and consequences of immigration to New Zealand.-Visa:...

and applicants that they believe will contribute are issued with a residential visa, while those with potential are issued with a work to resident visa. Under the work to residency process applicants are given a temporary work permit for two years and are then eligible to apply for residency. Applicants with a job offer from an accredited New Zealand employer, cultural or sporting talent, looking for work where there has been a long-term skill shortage or to establish a business can apply for work to residency.

While most New Zealanders live in New Zealand, there is also a significant diaspora

Diaspora

A diaspora is "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland" or "people dispersed by whatever cause to more than one location", or "people settled far from their ancestral homelands".The word has come to refer to historical mass-dispersions of...

abroad, estimated as of 2001 at over 460,000 or 14 percent of the international total of New Zealand-born. Of these, 360,000, over three-quarters of the New Zealand-born population residing outside of New Zealand, live in Australia. Other communities of New Zealanders abroad are concentrated in other English-speaking countries, specifically the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, with smaller numbers located elsewhere. Nearly one quarter of New Zealands highly-skilled workers live overseas, mostly in Australia and Britain, more than any other developed nation. However many educated professionals from Europe and lesser developed countries have recently migrated to New Zealand.

Ethnicity

New Zealand is a multiethnic society

Multiethnic society

A multiethnic society is one with members belonging to more than one ethnic group, in contrast to societies which are ethnically homogenous. In practice, virtually all contemporary national societies are multiethnic...

, and home to people of many different national origins. Originally comprising solely of the indigenous Māori, the ethnic makeup of the population has been dominated since the 19th century by New Zealanders of European descent

New Zealand European

The term New Zealand European refers to New Zealanders of European descent who identify as New Zealand Europeans rather than some other ethnic group...

. Most are of British and Irish ancestry, with smaller percentages of other European ancestries such as French, Dutch, Scandinavian and [South Slav. In the 2006 census, 67.6 percent identified ethnically as European and 14.6 percent as Māori. Other major ethnic groups include Asian (9.2 percent) and Pacific peoples (6.9 percent), while 11.1 percent identified themselves simply as a "New Zealander" (or similar) and 1 percent identified with other ethnicities. This contrasts with 1961, when the census reported that the population of New Zealand was 92 percent European and 7 percent Māori, with Asian and Pacific minorities sharing the remaining 1 percent.

The largest Māori iwi

Iwi

is Ngapuhi

Ngapuhi

with 122,211 people or 24 percent of the Māori population. The next largest iwi are Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāi Tahu/ Kāi Tahu, Te Arawa, Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Waikato and Tūhoe. A total of 102,366 people of Māori descent did not know their iwi. A group of Māori migrated to the Chatham Islands

Chatham Islands

and developed their distinct Moriori

Moriori

Moriori are the indigenous people of the Chatham Islands , east of the New Zealand archipelago in the Pacific Ocean...

culture. The Moriori population was decimated by Maori from 1835, with only 101 surviving in 1862 and the last known full-blooded Moriori dying in 1933. People identifying as having Moriori descents have increased in number in recent years, from 105 in 1991 to 945 in 2006.

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. Recent increases in interracial marriage

Interracial marriage

s has resulted in the New Zealand population of Māori, Asian

Asian people

Asian people or Asiatic people is a term with multiple meanings that refers to people who descend from a portion of Asia's population.- Central Asia :...

and Pacific Islander

Pacific Islander

Pacific Islander , is a geographic term to describe the indigenous inhabitants of any of the three major sub-regions of Oceania: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.According to the Encyclopædia Britannica, these three regions, together with their islands consist of:Polynesia:...

descent growing at a higher rate than those of European descent. In 2006 10.4 percent of people, identified with more than one ethnic group in 2006, compared with 9.0 percent in 2001. The ethnic diversity of New Zealand is projected to increase. Europeans (including "New Zealanders") will remain the largest group, although it is predicted to fall 70 percent in 2026. The Asian, Pacific and Māori groups are the fastest growing and will increase to 3.4 percent, 10 percent and 16 percent respectively. The ethnicity of the population aged under 18 years at 30 June 2006 was 72 percent European, 24 percent Māori, 12 percent Pacific and 10 percent Asian. The population aged 65 years or older consited of 91 percent European, 5 percent Māori, 4 percent Asian and 2 percent Pacific.

Language

English is the predominant language in New Zealand, spoken by 98 percent of the population. New Zealand English

New Zealand English

is mostly non-rhotic

Rhotic and non-rhotic accents

English pronunciation can be divided into two main accent groups: a rhotic speaker pronounces a rhotic consonant in words like hard; a non-rhotic speaker does not...

with an exception being the Southern Burr found principally in Southland

Southland Region

Southland is New Zealand's southernmost region and is also a district within that region. It consists mainly of the southwestern portion of the South Island and Stewart Island / Rakiura...

and parts of Otago

Otago

Otago is a region of New Zealand in the south of the South Island. The region covers an area of approximately making it the country's second largest region. The population of Otago is...

. It is similar to Australian English

Australian English

Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....

and many speakers from the Northern Hemisphere are unable to tell the accents

Accent (linguistics)

In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language In...

apart. In New Zealand English the short i (as in kit) has become centralised

Central vowel

, leading to the phrase fish and chips sounding like "fush and chups" to the Australian ear. The words rarely and really, reel and real, doll and dole, pull and pool, witch and which, and full and fill can sometimes be pronounced as homophone

Homophone

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...

s. Some New Zealanders pronounce the past participles

Participle

In linguistics, a participle is a word that shares some characteristics of both verbs and adjectives. It can be used in compound verb tenses or voices , or as a modifier...

grown, thrown and mown using two syllable

Syllable

A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...

s, whereas groan, throne and moan are pronounced as one syllable. New Zealanders often reply to a question or emphasise a point by adding a rising intonation

High rising terminal

The high rising terminal , also known as uptalk, upspeak, rising inflection or high rising intonation , is a feature of some accents of English where statements have a rising intonation pattern in the final syllable or syllables of the utterance.Empirically, Ladd proposes that HRT in American...

at the end of the sentence.

After the Second World War, Māori were discouraged from speaking their own language (te reo Māori) in schools and workplaces and it existed as a community language only in a few remote areas. It has recently undergone a process of revitalisation, being declared one of New Zealand's official languages in 1987, and is spoken by 4.1 percent of the population. There are now Māori language immersion schools and two Māori Television

Maori Television

Māori Television is a New Zealand TV station broadcasting programmes that make a significant contribution to the revitalisation of the Māori language and culture . Funded by the New Zealand Government, the station started broadcasting on 28 March 2004 from a base in Newmarket.Te Reo is the...

channels, the only nationwide television channels to have the majority of their prime-time content delivered in Māori. Many places have officially been given dual Māori and English names in recent years. Samoan is the most widely spoken non-official language (2.3 percent), followed by French, Hindi, Yue and Northern Chinese. New Zealand Sign Language

New Zealand Sign Language

New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL is the main language of the Deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006, alongside Te Reo Māori....

is used by approximately 28,000 people and was made New Zealand's third official language in 2006.

Education

Education follows the three-tier model, which includes primary schools, followed by secondary schools (high schools) and tertiary education at universities or polytechnics. The Programme for International Student Assessment

Programme for International Student Assessment

The Programme for International Student Assessment is a worldwide evaluation in OECD member countries of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance, performed first in 2000 and repeated every three years...

ranked New Zealand's education as the seventh highest in 2009 . The Education Index

Education Index

This article contains information based on the pre-2010 Human Development Reports. The HDI and its education component have changed in 2010.The United Nations publishes a Human Development Index every year, which consists of the Education index, GDP Index and Life Expectancy Index...

, published with the UN's 2008 Human Development Index

Human Development Index

The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...

and based on data from 2006, listed New Zealand at 0.993, tied for first with Denmark, Finland and Australia.

Primary and secondary schooling is compulsory for children aged 6 to 16, with the majority attending from the age of 5. Early leaving exemptions may be granted to 15 year old students that have been experiencing some ongoing difficulties at school or are unlikely to benefit from continued attendance. Parents and caregivers can home school their children if they obtain approval from the Ministry of Education and prove that that their child will be taught "as regularly and as well as in a registered school". There are 13 school years and attending public schools is free.

The academic year in New Zealand varies between institutions, but generally runs from late January until mid-December for primary and secondary schools and polytechnics, and from late February until mid-November for universities. 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

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.

Religion

Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand at just over half of the population at the 2006 New Zealand Census

New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings

The New Zealand government department Statistics New Zealand conducts a census of population and dwellings every five years. The census scheduled for 2011 was cancelled due to circumstances surrounding the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, however, and legislation introduced to hold the next...

, although regular church attendance

Church attendance

Church attendance refers to the reception of religious services offered by a particular church, or more generally, by any religious organisation.-Participation statistics:...

is probably closer to 15 percent. In the 2006 Census, 55.6 percent of the population identified themselves as Christians, while another 34.7 percent indicated that they had no religion (up from 29.6 percent in 2001) and around 4 percent affiliated with other religions. Immigrants make up 80 percent of most of the non-Christian religions, with the traditional Māori religion, Judaism (24 percent immigrant) and Bahá'í (20 percent immigrant) being the exceptions.

The traditional religion

Maori religion

Māori religion is the religious beliefs and practice of the Māori, the Polynesian indigenous people of New Zealand.-Traditional Māori religion:...

of the indigenous Māori population was animistic, but with the arrival of missionaries from the early 19th century most of the Māori population converting

Religious conversion

Religious conversion is the adoption of a new religion that differs from the convert's previous religion. Changing from one denomination to another within the same religion is usually described as reaffiliation rather than conversion.People convert to a different religion for various reasons,...

to Christianity. In 2006, 2,412 Māori still identify themselves as adhering to traditional Māori beliefs. The main Christian denominations are Anglicanism

Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia

The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia is a church of the Anglican Communion serving New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, and the Cook Islands...

, Roman Catholicism

Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand

The Catholic Church in New Zealand is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, which, inspired by the life, death and teachings of Jesus Christ, and under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and Roman curia in Vatican City is the largest Christian church in the world.Catholic settlers first arrived...

, Presbyterianism

Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

The Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand is the main Presbyterian church in New Zealand.-History:The Presbyterian Church of New Zealand was formed in October 1901 with the amalgamation of churches in Synod of Otago and Southland with those north of the Waitaki River.Presbyterians had by and...

and Methodism

Methodist Church of New Zealand

The Methodist Church of New Zealand — Te Hahi Weteriana O Aotearoa is a Methodist denomination headquartered in Christchurch, New Zealand. It is a member of the World Council of Churches.-External links:*...

. There are also significant numbers of Christians who identify themselves with Pentecostal, Baptist

Baptist Union of New Zealand

The Baptist Union of New Zealand is an association of Baptist churches in the country of New Zealand.Several Baptists settled in New Zealand in the 1840s, but the first Baptist minister, Decimus Dolamore from Yorkshire, England, did not arrive until May 1851...

, and Latter-day Saint churches and the New Zealand-based Ratana

Ratana

The Rātana movement is a Māori religion and pan-tribal political movement founded by Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana in early 20th century New Zealand...

church has adherents among Māori. According to census figures, other significant minority religions include Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

, Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, and Islam

Islam in New Zealand

Islam in New Zealand began with the arrival of Muslim Chinese gold prospectors in the 1870s. Small numbers of Muslim immigrants from India and eastern Europe settled from the early 1900s until the 1960s. Large-scale Muslim immigration began in the 1970s with the arrival of Fiji Indians, followed in...

. New Zealand has no state religion

State religion

A state religion is a religious body or creed officially endorsed by the state...

and freedom of religion

Freedom of religion

Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...

has been protected since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi

Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and various Māori chiefs from the North Island of New Zealand....

Income

New Zealand's early economy was based on sealing, whaling, flax, gold, kauri gum, and native timber. During the 1880s agricultural products became the highest export earner and farming was a major occupation within New Zealand. Farming is still a major employer, with 75 000 people indicating farming as their occupation during the 2006 census, although dairy farming has recently taken over from sheep as the largest sector. The largest occupation recorded during the census was sales assistant with 93,840 people. Most people are on wages or salaries (59.9 percent), with the other sources of income being interest and investments (24.1 percent) and self-employment (16.6 percent).

In 1982 New Zealand had the lowest per-capita income of all the developed nations surveyed by the World Bank

World Bank Group

The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...

. In 2010 the estimated gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity

Purchasing power parity

In economics, purchasing power parity is a condition between countries where an amount of money has the same purchasing power in different countries. The prices of the goods between the countries would only reflect the exchange rates...

(PPP) per capita was roughly US$28,250, between the thirty-first and fifty-first highest for all countries. The median personal income in 2006 was $24,400. This was up from $15,600 in 1996, with the largest increases in the $50,000 to $70,000 bracket. The median income for men was $31,500, $12,400 more than women. The highest median personal income were for people identifying with the European or "other" ethnic group, while the lowest was from the Asian ethnic group. The median income for people identifying as Māori was $20,900.

Unemployment peaked above 10 percent in 1991 and 1992, before falling to a record low of 3.4 percent in 2007 (ranking fifth from twenty-seven comparable OECD nations). Unemployment rose back to 7 percent in late 2009 and was 6.8 percent during the June 2010 quarter. The 2006 census reported that while the proportion of people with no source of income was the same as 2001, the number of people receiving the unemployment benefit dropped 48 percent. Most New Zealanders do some form of voluntary work, more women volunteer (92 percent) than males (86 percent). Home ownership has declined since 1991, from 73.8 percent to 66.9 percent in 2006.

New Zealanders

Population

Geographic location

Immigration

Ethnicity

Language

Education

Religion

Income

See also