In 2001, households in main urban areas had an average of 2.7 people per household, the same as the national average. These areas had the second-lowest proportion of households with only one family (68.0 percent, compared with 69.1 percent nationally) and the highest proportion of multi-person households (6.2 percent, compared with 5.4 percent nationally). The high proportion of multi-person households is probably related to the population’s age structure as main urban areas have a high proportion of people aged 15 to 24 years, who are likely to be in a flatting situation.
Urban areas generally had lower proportions of married people and higher proportions of the never-married. Main urban areas had the lowest proportion of married people, 47.7 percent, compared with 49.7 percent nationally. The age structure is probably a factor in the high proportion of never-married people (34.9 percent, compared with 32.8 percent nationally). At the time of the 2001 Census, 95.6 percent of New Zealanders aged between 15 and 24 years had never been married, compared with 42.6 percent of people aged between 25 and 39 years.
Families in main urban areas tended to be slightly smaller on average than in other profile areas. The proportion of two-parent families in main urban areas was similar to the national average (42.5 percent, compared with 42.1 percent nationally). There were fewer couples without children (37.5 percent, compared with 39.0 percent nationally). Families with children in main urban areas had fewer dependent children than the national average. In main urban areas, 19.7 percent of families had no dependent children, compared with 18.6 percent nationally, and fewer families had three or more dependent children (17.5 percent, compared with 18.8 percent nationally). Statistics on fertility from the 1996 Census showed that women living in main urban areas gave birth to 1.8 children on average, compared with 1.9 children nationally.
Crowded Households(1) for Main Urban Areas
Census of Population and Dwellings, 2001
(1) Crowding categories are based on the difference between the number of bedrooms available and the number required to satisfy the conditions of the Canadian National Occupancy Standard.
Main urban areas had the highest rates of crowding, with 4.3 percent of households requiring one extra bedroom and 1.4 percent of households requiring two or more extra bedrooms, according to the Canadian National Occupancy Standard. Considerable variation existed between main urban areas. Southern Auckland Zone had the highest rate of crowding, with 1 in 8 households having insufficient bedrooms to accommodate their occupants. Invercargill had the lowest rate of crowding, with approximately 1 in 50 households lacking sufficient bedrooms for their occupants.
Main urban areas had a lower than average teenage birth rate (27.0 births per 1,000 females aged 15–19 years, compared with 29.0 nationally) for the period 1999 to 2003. Main urban areas in the North Island had a higher rate than those in the South Island (29.4 and 18.5 births per 1,000 females, respectively). Wellington zone had the lowest teenage birth rate, with 9.7 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 years, compared with a rate of 56.3 births in the Gisborne urban area.
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