Migration loss to Canty

Press, 29 February 1984, Page 3

Migration loss to Canty

Wellington reporter Canterbury suffered a heavy loss of population between 1976 and 1981, according to details from the 1981 census, given by the Statistics Department. During the five years, 1,203,435 people aged five years or older (43.3 per cent of the population resident here for both censuses) changed their home in New Zealand at least once. More than half these changes (54.4 per cent or 655,179 moves) were only local — within the same urban or rural area. The northern halves of both islands gained at the expense of the southern halves of both islands. Whereas in 1981 49 per cent more people arrived in the northern North Island than left compared with 1976, 30 per cent more left the southern North Island

than arrived. Only two South Island areas gained more people than they lost — Nelson was up 1458 and Marlborough was up 402. Westland lost 816, Canterbury lost 1920, Otago lost 3786 and Southland lost 3597. Wellington (city and province) lost 12,729, Taranaki lost 2547, Hawke’s Bay lost 276, and the East Coast lost 1383. Northland gained 2544, Central Auckland gained 16,485, and Waikato-Bay of Plenty gained 6171. Canterbury made a net gain of 2592 people between the 1971 and 1976 censuses, but lost 1920 between 1976 and 1981. Between 1976 and 1981, 43,314 South Islanders shifted to the North Island and 35,055 North Islanders shifted to the South Island, resulting in a net loss of population for the South

Island of 8250, representing 1.1 per cent of the South Island’s population. Whereas only 16 per cent of the shifts between provinces by North Islanders involved a change of island, 48 per cent of shifts between provinces by South Islanders involved a change of island. Canterbury contributed by far the largest share of South Island migrants to the North Island - 21,919 (51 per cent). Otago provided 20 per cent (8853); Nelson, 11 per cent (4629); Southland, 9 per cent (4038); Marlborough, 6 per cent (2754); and Westland, 3 per cent (1134). Wellington and Central Auckland attracted 66 per cent of the South Islanders moving to the North Island. The three main metropolitan areas, Auckland, Wellington and ■t’Christ-

church, absorbed one in every four migrants between 1976 and 1981.

Auckland attracted 67,092, Wellington, 35,825, and Christchurch, 31,560. The drift of population to the cities and suburbs which was a feature of each postwar census until 1971 continues to slow down. During the decade, 1971-81, the growth rate in cities and suburbs from migration has declined 78 per cent. On the other hand, between 1976 and 1981, there was no substantial loss of population either from rural or smaller urban areas. In all, 3798 more left rural areas than moved in and 7107 more left small towns than moved in, between 1976 and 1981; between 1966 and 1971, small towns and rural areas lost 50,506 migrants to the cities and suburbs.