WELLINGTON, Aug 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) – New Zealand’s resident population, provisionally grew by 12,700, or 0.2 percent over the year, to reach 5.12 million on Jun 30, 2022, the country’s statistics department, Stats NZ, said today.
This is the lowest annual growth rate since Jun, 1986, when the population barely changed, Stats NZ said.
New Zealand’s population change is a combination of natural increase (births minus deaths) and net migration (migrant arrivals minus migrant departures), it said.
“Net migration loss, combined with a lower natural increase, resulted in the low level of growth,” population estimates and projections acting manager, Rebekah Hennessey, said in a statement.
In the year ended Jun, 2022, the number of births remained around 61,000, while the number of deaths grew by 10.1 percent to 36,900, due partly to population aging, Hennessey said, adding, this led to a natural increase reducing to 24,100 in the year ended Jun, 2022, from 27,700 in the year ended Jun, 2021.
Among broad age groups, the population aged 65 years and over was the fastest growing, with an annual increase of 2.8 percent, she said, adding, most of this increase was a result of people born in the mid-1950s turning 65 and moving into this age group.
In contrast, the number of people aged 15 to 39 years shrank by 0.5 percent, or 8,700 people. This drop is mainly due to a population loss from migration, as well as, more people moving out of this age group to older ages, than moving into this age group from younger ages, Hennessey said.– NNN-AGENCIES
