QuickStats About Population Mobility

• More people are moving residence. At the time of the 2006 Census, over half (54.8 percent) of the usually resident population aged five years and over had moved residence at least once since the previous census in 2001. A further 1 in every 11 people (9.4 percent) were living overseas in 2001. The corresponding figures from the 2001 Census (looking back five years to the 1996 Census) were 49.4 percent and 7.0 percent, respectively.
• Of those who had lived overseas in 2001, more than 1 in 5 people (21.5 percent) had been born in New Zealand.

Age

• Young adults were more likely than older people to have moved residence at least once in the five years prior to the census.
• People aged 20 to 34 years were least likely to be at the same residence as they were five years earlier.
• Those most likely to have lived overseas five years earlier were people aged 30 to 34 years, with almost 1 in every 5 of these people (19.6 percent) living overseas five years ago in 2001.

Ethnic group 

• Mobility varies by ethnicity. For example, people identifying with the Māori ethnic group were the most likely (60.3 percent) to have been living elsewhere in New Zealand five years earlier, while people identifying with the Other ethnicity and European ethnic groups were the most likely to be living at the same usual residence as they were in 2001.
• Around 2 in every 5 people identifying with the Asian (39.0 percent) and the Middle Eastern/Latin American/African (41.8 percent) ethnic groups had lived overseas in 2001.

Location 

• Of the regions, the West Coast had the highest proportion of people (47.9 percent) living at the same usual residence as five years earlier, while Waikato Region had the lowest (38.7 percent).
• The Auckland Region had the highest proportion of people (14.4 percent) who had moved into a region from overseas between 2001 and 2006. Southland Region, with 3.8 percent, had the lowest.
• Of the cities and districts, Queenstown-Lakes had the lowest proportion of people (25.5 percent) who had lived at the same usual residence five years earlier. This was due to the high proportion of people who had lived elsewhere in New Zealand (55.7 percent) or overseas (18.7 percent) in 2001. Three districts recorded more than 15 percent of their usually resident population as living overseas in 2001 – Queenstown-Lakes District (18.7 percent), Auckland (17.8 percent) and North Shore (17.4 percent).