How many Māori moved?

More than 60 percent of people of Māori ethnicity have moved at least once within New Zealand between 2001 and 2006.

In 2006, there were 565,300 people who identified Māori as one of their ethnicities. Of these, 541,100 people told us where they had lived five years earlier, at the time of the 2001 Census.

Table 1

Among the people aged five years and over who gave us this information, 60 percent had moved at least once in NZ within the previous five years, 37 percent had not moved and 2 percent had arrived or returned from overseas.

Māori increasingly mobile

In the 20 years from 1986 to 2006, Māori have become increasingly mobile. Less than half (47 percent) had moved within New Zealand between 1981 and 1986 compared with over 60 percent in 2006. A number of factors contribute to this. Among these are the fact that the population as a whole has become much more mobile, improved economic conditions and employment opportunities have enabled more mobility, and increasing inter-ethnic, inter-regional and inter-iwi partnering.

Table 2