By 3 News online staff
New Zealand's population grew at its slowest rate in over a decade in the year to March, Statistics NZ has revealed.
There are now 4,430,400 people living in New Zealand, up 27,700 – 0.6 percent – on a year ago.
It is the slowest year-on-year growth since 2001.
"A combination of fewer births, more deaths, and more people leaving New Zealand has resulted in the country's lowest population growth since 2001," says population statistics manager Andrea Blackburn.
There were 31,100 more births than deaths in the year to March, but a net migration loss of 3,400.
Nearly 50,000 Kiwis moved to Australia last year, an all-time high – a yearly exodus that has almost doubled in number since 2007, when 27,200 Kiwis moved to Australia in the year ended November.
In February, 4,100 Kiwis moved to Australia, which if extrapolated out to 12 months, equates to an annual rate of over 53,000 (taking into account February's shorter length).
There are now more than 600,000 people aged 65 and over living in New Zealand. The fastest-growing age group is those aged 80 and over.
"In the next 40 years, the number of people aged 80 years and over is expected to more than triple from 160,000 to exceed half a million," says Ms Blackburn.
In 2002, 12 percent of the population was old enough to collect a pension. Now it's 14 percent.
3 News
source: newshub archive
