External Migration: January 2002
There were 204,700 short-term overseas visitor arrivals in New Zealand in January 2002, up 7,000 or 4 percent on
January 2001, according to Statistics New Zealand. This was the first January month with more than 200,000 short-term
visitor arrivals. It was also the first month since September 2001 where there was an increase in the number of
visitors, when compared with the same month of the previous year. There were more visitors from the United States (up
7,000 or 38 percent), the United Kingdom (up 3,000), Korea (up 2,900) and Canada (up 1,500), but fewer from Hong Kong
(down 2,400), Australia (down 1,800), Japan (down 1,500) and Germany (down 1,400).
In the year ended January 2002, there were 1.917 million visitor arrivals, up 99,000 or 5 percent on the previous
January year. There were more visitors from Australia (up 48,200), Korea (up 21,700), China (up 16,600) and the United
Kingdom (up 7,100), but fewer from Taiwan (down 7,600), Japan (down 6,500) and Thailand (down 6,000).
Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals increased by 6 percent between December 2001 and January 2002. This follows a 14
percent increase from November to December 2001.
New Zealand residents departed on 66,400 short-term overseas trips in January 2002. This was 4,700 or 7 percent fewer
than in January 2001. There were 4,400 or 11 percent fewer departures to Australia, which accounted for the majority of
the overall decrease. In the year ended January 2002, New Zealand resident short-term departures numbered 1.283 million,
down 5,000 or less than 1 percent on the year ended January 2001.
In the month of January 2002, permanent and long-term (PLT) arrivals exceeded departures by 4,700, compared with a net
outflow of 1,900 in January 2001. The change was the result of 3,300 more arrivals and 3,300 fewer departures. PLT
departures to Australia in January 2002 were down 2,800 or 45 percent on the same month of the previous year, but there
was little change in the number of arrivals. The result was a net outflow of 2,000 migrants to Australia in January
2002, compared with a net outflow of 4,900 in January 2001. Conversely, there were net gains from China (1,900), the
United Kingdom (600), India (500) and Korea (500).
The seasonally adjusted series recorded a net PLT inflow of 3,400 in January 2002, up from 2,500 in December 2001.
In the year ended January 2002, there was a net inflow of 16,300 PLT migrants, compared with a net outflow of 11,800
migrants in the previous January year. This net inflow, which was the result of 20,400 more PLT arrivals and 7,800 fewer
PLT departures in 2002, was the first in a January year since 1998. There was a net outflow to Australia (21,000), but
net inflows from China (11,400), India (4,400), South Africa (2,900), the United Kingdom (2,500), Fiji (2,400) and Japan
(2,200) in the year ended January 2002.
Compared with the January 2001 year, New Zealand citizen PLT arrivals were up by 2,600 (to 23,700) and non-New Zealand
citizen PLT arrivals were up by 17,700 (to 60,700) in the January 2002 year. There were also PLT departures of 53,000
New Zealand citizens and 15,100 non-New Zealand citizens, resulting in a net PLT outflow of 29,300 New Zealand citizens
and a net PLT inflow of 45,700 non-New Zealand citizens in the January 2002 year.
Brian Pink
Government Statistician
END