National Population Estimates - December 1999 quarter
Latest Population Estimates
New Zealand's resident population was estimated to have been 3,825,700 at 31 December 1999, Deputy Government
Statistician Dianne Macaskill said today when releasing the latest quarterly population estimates. During the last year
of the twentieth century the New Zealand population grew by an estimated 20,200 or 0.5 per cent. The increase was
four-fifths of the increase for the year ended December 1998 (24,300). The smaller increase for the December 1999 year
was due mainly to a larger net out-migration. Permanent and long-term departures exceeded arrivals by 9,000 during the
December 1999 year, compared with a net outflow of 6,300 for the December 1998 year.
As this is the first release on population estimates for the twenty-first century, the demographic legacy of the last
century is worth noting. Our current population is 4.8 times larger than the estimated population of 796,400 at 31
December 1899. A hundred years ago New Zealand was a young country. Half the population was below 23 years of age. Men
outnumbered women: the sex ratio was 90 women for every 100 men. At the beginning of the twenty-first century New
Zealand is a mature country demographically, with an ageing population, a median age of 34.1 years (up 11 years on the
1901 figure), and a sex ratio favouring women at 103 women to 100 men.
At 31 December 1999 there were an estimated 876,000 children under 15 years, and 448,000 people aged 65 years and over.
Respectively, they made up 22.9 and 11.7 of New Zealand residents, compared with 34 and 4 per cent in 1901. At the start
of the last century children outnumbered elderly by 8 to 1 but now the ratio is about 2 to 1.
Dianne Macaskill DEPUTY GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN