New Zealand Immigration – New Zealand sees Record Annual Growth Boost Due to Immigration

The programme year ending this June recorded the highest annual population growth ever. The population in New Zealand was recorded to rise to 4.69 million from 97,300.

The last time New Zealand recorded an increase of 2% was in 1974. Before that, the population growth rate was high in the 1950s and 1960s. Still, such a vast increase has never been witnessed.

Jo-Anne Skinner, Senior Manager New Zealand Statistics said that the record annual population growth is high due to the high rate of New Zealand immigration. Around 69,100 migrations were recorded in the program year that ended in June 2016.

The difference in the rate of arrivals and departures of migrants is also evident. For 56,000 departures, there were 125,100 arrivals. The birth to death ratio was also poles apart. It served the remaining 28,200 increase in the population.

The younger population, people aged between 15 and 39 grew by 3.6% while the old aged people above 65 years also increased by 3.6%.

For the month of June only, the number of guest nights also saw a huge increase. Domestic guest nights rose to 13.9% while national guest nights were recorded to rise by 11.9%.

Half of this increase in guest nights was accounted to domestic guest nights hosted by North Island increasing New Zealand immigration.

Though usually, June is the off-season for restaurants and hotels in terms of accommodation, but this year, the highest guest nights were recorded in June.

The North Island guest nights recorded an increase by 13.3% while the South Island guest nights recorded an increase by 9.5%. Domestic nights were up by 10.9% while national guest nights rose by 13.7%.

The analysis over the comparison in the rate of guest nights for June 2015 and June 2016 shows that the guest nights for all 12 regions inclusive were up by a net value of 5.8%.

The statistics recorded were only for hotels, motels, holiday parks and backpacker accommodation in New Zealand. Private accommodations were not considered to draw these statistics.

The rapid pace of New Zealand immigration is considered to be the reason behind this increase.