WELLINGTON, June 10 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's population remains highly mobile, with 2.2 million people -- nearly half of the national population -- changing address between 2018 and 2023, according to a new census from the statistics department Stats NZ on Tuesday.
The proportion of movers, at 45.2 percent, is consistent with the previous five-year period, highlighting a sustained trend of internal migration, Stats NZ said.
Most relocations, about 77 percent, occurred within the same region, while 16.6 percent involved moves to different regions on the same island, it said, adding one in ten New Zealanders now lives in a different region than they did five years ago.
Inter-island migration patterns show a clear southward drift. At least 4 percent of each South Island region's 2023 population previously lived in the North Island, Stats NZ said, adding South Island's Otago leads with 9.9 percent of its residents having relocated from the North Island since 2018.
In contrast, most North Island regions saw less than 2 percent of their 2023 population arrive from the South Island, with the capital Wellington the only exception at 2.6 percent, statistics show.
"Housing affordability and study opportunities are likely to be strong factors for drawing so many people to Canterbury and Otago (in the South Island) from the North Island," said Stats NZ spokesperson Rosemary Goodyear.
Rising house prices and increased remote work have fueled movement from major New Zealand cities to nearby districts, Goodyear said, adding the largest city Auckland continues to lose residents to internal migration, but international arrivals and births offset these losses. ■
