Population figures

Press, 13 December 1982, Page 40

Population figures

PA Wellington New Zealand's Pacific Island Polynesian population rose between 1976 and 1981 46.2 per cent, according to the Statistics Department. However, for the first time since 1945. the number of overseas-born people in the New Zealand population has decreased. At the 1981 census, 479.577 people, or 15.2 per cent of the total population, were born overseas, compared with 508.125 or 16.3 per cent at the 1976 census. Pacific Island Polynesians in 1981 totalled 89.697, while in 1976 the figure was 61,345. The 1981 figure constituted 2.8 per cent (2.0 per cent in 1976) of the total New Zealand population. In the 1971-76 period, most

Polynesian population gains were due to immigration, but in the five years to 1981 the New Zealand-born Pacific Island Polynesian population rose 16.000. In 1981. 44.4 per cent (38.6 per cent in 1976) of all Pacific Island Polynesians were born in New Zealand. The biggest group was Samoans (42.456). followed by Cook Island Maoris (24,042). Niueans (8121). Tongans (7053), and Tokelauans (2295). In 1981 Europeans made up 86.8 per cent of the total population (88.1 per cent); New Zealand Maoris. 8.9 per cent (8.8 per cent); Pacific Island Polynesians. 2.8 per cent (2 per cent); Chinese. 0.6 per cent (0.5 per cent); and Indians. 0.4 per cent (0.3 per cent). The largest concentration

of Pacific Island Polynesians was in the Central Auckland statistical area (57,459 or 64.7 per cent) with the Wellington statistical area second on 17,577 or 19.8 per cent. Pacific Island Polynesians were the most highly urbanised of the major ethnic groups. 97.9 per cent of them living in cities. The Pacific Island-born population, which made up 2.5 per cent of the full-time resident labour force, were heavily concentrated among production and related workers, transport equipment operators, and labourers where they constituted 4.5 per cent of that occupational group. This represented some 62 per cent of Pacific Islanders in the full-time labour force.