Regions with significant populations | |
---|---|
New Zealand c. 4,690,000 |
|
Australia | 566,815 |
United Kingdom | 58,286 |
United States | 22,872 |
Canada | 9,475 |
Netherlands | 4,260 |
United Arab Emirates | 4,000 |
Japan | 3,146 |
Hong Kong | 3,000 |
Germany | 2,631 |
Ireland | 2,195 |
France | 890 |
Languages | |
English · Māori · NZ Sign Language · Others | |
Religion | |
Predominantly Christianity, mostly Protestantism, but also Roman Catholicism. Other religions include Māori traditional beliefs, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Sikhism. Agnosticism and atheism are also prevalent. |
New Zealanders, colloquially known as Kiwis, are citizens of New Zealand. New Zealand is a multiethnic society, and home to people of many national origins. Originally composed solely of the indigenous Māori, the ethnic makeup of the population has been dominated since the 19th century by New Zealanders of European descent, mainly of Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish ancestry, with smaller percentages of other European ancestries such as French, Dutch, Scandinavian and South Slavic. New Zealand had an estimated resident population of around 4.47 million as of June 2013, although around 220,000 of those have been resident in the country for less than five years.
Today, the ethnic makeup of the New Zealand population is undergoing a process of change, with new waves of immigration, higher birth rates and increasing interracial marriage resulting in the New Zealand population of Māori, Asian, Pacific Islander and multiracial descent growing at a higher rate than those of solely European descent, with such groups projected to make up a larger proportion of the population in the future.
While most New Zealanders live in New Zealand, there is also a significant diaspora, estimated in 2001 at over 460,000 or 14% of the international total of New Zealand-born people. Of these, 360,000, over three-quarters of the New Zealand-born population residing outside of New Zealand, live in Australia. Other communities of New Zealanders abroad are predominantly concentrated in other English-speaking countries, specifically the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, with smaller numbers located elsewhere. This diaspora has reportedly surged as of 2010, with well over 650,000 New Zealanders living abroad. According to the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection, an estimated 640,770 New Zealanders lived in Australia on 30 June 2013.