The information presented in this profile is based on the census usually resident population count. The Tokelauan population includes those people who stated Tokelauan as their sole ethnicity or as one of several ethnic groups. The Pacific population refers to all those who stated a Pacific ethnicity.
- In 2001, Tokelauan people were the sixth largest Pacific ethnic group living in New Zealand, comprising 6,200 or 3 percent of New Zealand's Pacific population (231,800).
- The largest Pacific ethnic group was Samoan (50 percent), followed by the Cook Island Maori (23 percent), Tongan (18 percent), Niuean (9 percent) and Fijian (3 percent) groups. The Tuvaluan group (1 percent) followed the Tokelauan in size.
- The Tokelauan population increased by 1,300 or 26 percent between 1996 and 2001. During the same five-year period, the Pacific population increased by 15 percent. Between 1991 and 1996, the Tokelauan population increased by 19 percent.
- In the decade to 2001, the Tokelauan population increased by 50 percent, as figure 1.1 shows.
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Age and sex distribution
- The Tokelauan population is very youthful, as figure 1.2 illustrates. In 2001, 43 percent of Tokelauans were under 15 years of age, compared with 23 percent of the New Zealand population. Three percent of Tokelauan people were aged 65 years and over, compared with 12 percent of the New Zealand population.
- In 2001, the median age, or midpoint of the Tokelauan age distribution, was 18.8 years. By comparison, the median ages for the Pacific and New Zealand populations were 21.0 years and 34.8 years respectively.
- Overall, the male and female Tokelauan populations are evenly balanced, with Tokelauan females (3,200) and
Tokelauan males (3,100) making up 51 percent and 49 percent respectively of the Tokelauan population. Tokelauan women tend to outnumber Tokelauan males in the older age groups – a reflection of their longer life expectancy.
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Place of birth
- New Zealand-born Tokelauan people accounted for 66 percent of the total Tokelauan population in New Zealand in 2001, up from 60 percent in 1996. In 1991, 55 percent of Tokelauan people living in New Zealand were New Zealand-born.
- In 2001, 75 percent of overseas-born Tokelauan people in New Zealand gave Tokelau as their birthplace.
- Between 1996 and 2001, the New Zealand-born Tokelauan population grew more quickly than the overseas-born Tokelauan population (38 percent compared with 10 percent).
- The New Zealand-born Tokelauan population has a much younger age structure than the overseas-born Tokelauan population. In 2001, 60 percent of the New Zealand-born Tokelauan population were under the age of 15 years, whereas 10 percent of the overseas-born population were under 15 years.
- Less than 1 percent of New Zealand-born Tokelauan people were aged between 45 and 64 years, whereas 29 percent of the overseas-born population were in this age group in 2001.
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Duration of residence
- More than half (55 percent) of Tokelauan people born overseas had been living in New Zealand for more than 20 years at the time of the 2001 Census, while a further 18 percent had been resident for between 10 and 20 years.
- Four percent of the overseas-born Tokelauan population had been in New Zealand for less than one year – down 2 percentage points since 1996.
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Geographical distribution
- In 2001, 90 percent of all Tokelauan people lived in the main urban areas (populations of 30,000 or more) – a proportion almost unchanged from 1996 (89 percent).
- The geographical distribution of Tokelauan people was also similar to 1996. In 2001, the greatest concentration of the Tokelauan community was in the Wellington urban area – 53 percent (unchanged from 1996).
- One-third (33 percent) of the total Tokelauan population lived in Porirua, while 15 percent lived in Lower Hutt.
- Outside of the Wellington urban area, the next largest concentration of Tokelauan people was in the Auckland urban area (24 percent – up 1 percentage point from 1996).
- The largest Tokelauan community in the South Island in 2001 was based in the Dunedin urban area, numbering 90 people or 1 percent of the Tokelauan population in New Zealand.
