Electoral district characteristics - article

Printable version
Key Statistics - article, July 2002, p 9-12
 

Electoral District Characteristics¹

General information

The thirty-first New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings was held on 6 March 2001. The counts for this snapshot are taken from tables prepared for the Electoral Profile (2002 Boundaries) topic-based series report published in June 2002.
 

The Representation Commission has recently announced the electoral district boundaries that will be used at the 2002 General Election. At the next General Election there will be 69 electoral districts: 62 General electoral districts and seven Māori electoral districts. This snapshot provides information on some of the characteristics of the people who usually live in the new electoral districts. The data for General electoral districts is for the census usually resident population count. The data for Māori electoral districts is for the census usually resident population count of Māori descent. The data provided in this snapshot is not provided on electoral populations.
 

Details on how electoral populations are determined can be found at: http://www.elections.org.nz/esyst/boundaries_drawn.html.

Maps showing the new electoral district boundaries can be found at: http://www.elections.org.nz/electorates/index.html.
 

General electoral districts
 

• 73 percent of usual residents in General electoral districts were of voting age (ie 18 years and over).
• Wellington and Auckland Central General electoral districts had the highest ratio of voting age to non-voting age people (83 percent were 18 years and over), while Mangere had the lowest ratio (64 percent).
• Those General electoral districts with the highest median age for the voting population were Otaki (52 years) and Coromandel (51 years), while the districts with the lowest median voting age were Wellington Central (35 years), Dunedin North, Auckland Central and Mt Albert (each 37 years).
• Manurewa and Mangere General electoral districts had the highest proportions of children under five years of age (10 percent each).
• Out of all the General electoral districts, Otaki had the highest proportion of people aged 65 years and over (21 percent), followed by Tauranga (18 percent) and Coromandel (18 percent).
• 52 percent of voting age people in General electoral districts were women while the remaining 48 percent were men.
• The highest proportion of women aged 18 years and over (54 percent) was found in the urban electoral districts of Dunedin South, Ilam, North Shore, Tamaki and Tauranga.
• The highest proportion of male voters (51 percent) was found in rural electoral districts of Rakaia and Clutha-Southland.

• General electoral districts in the Auckland Region had the greatest ethnic diversity.
• Mangere (29 percent), Manukau East (42 percent), Manurewa (50 percent), Maungakiekie (53 percent), Mt Roskill (56 percent) and Mt Albert (61 percent) had the lowest proportions of usual residents of European ethnicity.
• There were five General electoral districts with more than 10,000 identifying with the Pacific peoples ethnic group: Maungakiekie, Mana, Manurewa, Manukau East and Mangere. Only one of these districts (Mana) is outside the Auckland Region.
• Mangere had the greatest number of Pacific peoples (32,148 people or 52 percent of the electoral district).
• Six General electoral districts had more than 10,000 people of Asian ethnicities: Manukau East, Maungakiekie, Mt Albert, Mt Roskill, New Lynn and Pakuranga. Mt Roskill had the greatest number of people in the Asian ethnic group (13,983 people or 26 percent of the electoral district).
• People identifying with the Māori ethnic group were more likely to be found in those General electoral districts outside the Auckland region. The six General electoral districts with more than 15,000 people who identified with the Māori ethnic group were: Tukituki, Manurewa, Taupo, Northland, Rotorua and East Coast. East Coast had the greatest number of people of Māori ethnicity (35,955 people or 46 percent of the electoral district).
• General electoral districts in the South Island had the highest proportion of people in the European ethnic groups. 96 percent of the people in Aoraki, Otago and Rakaia were of European ethnicity.
  
  

   
  

• The annual median income for all New Zealand adults (aged 15 years and over) was $18,500 in the year to March 2001. Two General electoral districts matched the national figure: Rangitikei and Mt Roskill. 
• In three General electoral districts the median was in excess of $25,000 per annum: Ohariu-Belmont ($29,200), Epsom ($28,800), and Wellington Central ($28,600).
• Wellington Central and Ohariu-Belmont also had the highest proportion of usual residents who received income from wages and salaries in the 12 months prior to the 2001 Census (73 percent and 69 percent respectively).
• Four General electoral districts had a median annual income below $15,000: East Coast ($14,900), West Coast-Tasman ($14,800), Northland ($14,500) and Dunedin North ($12,900).
• East Coast (11 percent), Northland (10 percent) and Dunedin North (10 percent) had high proportions of adults in receipt of the Community Wage-Jobseeker benefit in the 12 months prior to the census, while Dunedin North also had a high proportion of adults in receipt of a Student Allowance (12 percent).
• The two General electoral districts which had the highest proportion of adults in receipt of income from self employment were Clutha-Southland and Taranaki-King Country (28 percent). The district with the lowest proportion was Mangere (7 percent).

Work and employment

• 62 percent of adults were employed in the week preceding the census. However, this varied between a high of 72 percent in the Ohariu-Belmont and Wellington Central General electoral districts, and a low of 51 percent in the Otaki General electoral district (where there were more people in the 65 years and over age group).
  
  

   
  

• Unemployment rates were highest in the General electoral districts of Mangere (14 percent), Manurewa (12 percent), Manukau East (11 percent), Northland (11 percent), East Coast (11 percent) and Dunedin North (11 percent).
  

Māori electoral districts