NZ annual net migration eases to 70,100

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By Leith van Onselen

A week after Statistics New Zealand released data showing that the nation’s fertility rate has hit an all-time low:

Statistics New Zealand has today released data showing that annual net migration into New Zealand has finally eased, falling to 70,100 in the year to January 2017, down 1,200 from January 2016:

In the year ended January 2018, 70,100 more migrants arrived in New Zealand than left, Stats NZ said today. Migrant arrivals were 132,000 and migrant departures were 61,900.

Annual net migration in the January 2018 year was down 1,200 from the January 2017 year. Annual net migration had reached a record high of 72,400 in the July 2017 year, but has slowed slightly since then.

In the January 2018 year, 24,900 migrants arrived from Australia and a similar number departed for Australia.

“Over half of migrants arriving from Australia are actually returning Kiwis who have been living across the Tasman for more than a year,” population insights senior manager Peter Dolan said.

“The number of migrants going back and forth to Australia in the past year almost balanced each other out – the net gain was just 40 people in the last 12 months.”

That means net migration’s contribution to New Zealand’s population growth in the January 2018 year mainly reflected a gain of 70,100 people from other countries around the world.

The largest net migration in the January 2018 year was for migrants arriving from:

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  • China (net gain of 9,300)
  • India (6,700)
  • United Kingdom (6,100)
  • South Africa (4,900)
  • Philippines (4,800)
  • France (3,300)
  • Germany (3,000).

These are still extreme immigration levels for New Zealand, running at around 1.4% of the population. But at least they are starting to moderate.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.