New Zealand’s Growth - The Inconvenient Truth

University of Waikato demographer, Professor Natalie Jackson, today shared some stark population truths with more than 500 delegates at Local Government New Zealand’s annual conference in Hamilton.

Professor Jackson said over the next two decades, all growth in 56 of New Zealand's territorial authorities (84 per cent of the total 78) will be in the 65 years-plus age bracket.

By 2031, an estimated 91 per cent of territorial authorities (TA) will have more elderly than children. This figure currently stands at just 15 per cent. This will have a major impact on employment, housing and infrastructure in much of New Zealand.

This, Prof Jackson says, is the inconvenient truth of population ageing, already well advanced across the developed world.

In this context of population aging, there needs to be an understanding of implications by the Government when they allow businesses to close, says Professor Jackson.

“It’s happening now, and it’s not well understood. Each TA needs to understanding this well and explore ways to deal with this growing problem.”

“It is surely time that we had a national plan.”

“We can proactively manage the process of population aging and the end of population growth in our regions – but we need to get going. We need to accept that this is coming to a place near you – but remember – we are all in this together. We need to respond to the demography ­- we can’t change it but we can try to manage migration loss. And we need to increase our fight against the loss of local jobs.”

LGNZ President, Lawrence Yule, added the aging population and migration from our regions is the biggest issue facing local government outside of Auckland. “We are challenging the Government to have a national conversation on issues important to the sector for the benefit of New Zealand inc, such as housing affordability, infrastructure and jobs.”

ENDS

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