Statistics New Zealand says the population is projected to become more ethnically diverse over the next two decades. Projections manager Hamish Slack says, “while all ethnic group populations are expected to grow over the next two decades, the broad European ethnic group is projected to have the slowest growth.”
He adds that different growth rates between ethnic groups reflect different rates of birth, death, and migration.
By 2043 the data suggests the population is estimated to be broken down by (in alphabetical order):
- Asian: 25%
- Chinese: 8.1%
- European and Other: 64.3%
- Indian: 9.1%
- Māori: 20.5%
- MELAA*: 2.9%
- Pacific: 10.7%
- Samoan: 5.3%
(*MELAA: Middle Eastern/Latin American/African)
Hamish notes that ethnic group populations can overlap because people identify with multiple ethnicities. As a result, the ethnic shares sum to more than 100 percent. This overlap is projected to increase as more people identify with multiple ethnicities, especially at younger ages.
Image Credit: Stats NZ