Annual immigration hits fresh record, visitor numbers lower than expected

Friday, 21 July 2017

Predictions have been dashed over the past year that immigration has peaked.

Immigration hit a new record high in the year to June, but ANZ said visitor numbers saw a lower-than-expected boost from the Lion's tour.

Statistics NZ said net migration totalled 72,305 in the year to June 30, up from 71,964 in the year to May 31.

The net figure counts people intending to live, work or study in New Zealand for more than a year – minus those leaving.

'Annual net migration has been steadily increasing since late 2012 when we had more departures than arrivals,' population statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said.

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'Over the past three years, annual net migration has been consistently hitting record levels due to an increasing number of non-New Zealand citizen arrivals.'

ANZ bank noted the migration figures equated to a 1.5 per cent rise in the country's annual population.

'While [immigration] is clearly now in the domestic political spotlight, the reality of a solid local labour market, and changes in migration policies in the likes of Australia and the UK for New Zealanders, means that it is hard to see it changing much for a while,' it said.

The biggest increases in net migration for the year to June 2017 – when compared with the year to June 2016 – were from the UK and South Africa, Statistics NZ said, with migrant numbers from those countries up 2600 and 1800 respectively.

Migration from India dropped over the same period from 12,100 to 7400, largely due to a decrease in Indian students coming to New Zealand to study.

Visitor numbers were also up, boosted by the Lion's tour.

Statistics NZ said total overseas visitor numbers totalled 230,100 in June, up 17 per cent on the same month last year.

The number of people visiting from the UK and Ireland jumped to 23,400 – up by 16,700 on June last year.

But ANZ said that boost was smaller than it had expected and might help explain lacklustre bankcard spending in June.

'Perhaps it reflects the capacity issues in the domestic accommodation sector, or the fact that the [exchange rate] made the trip unaffordable for some. But it does put the recent soft retail spending figures in a little more context,' it said.