Migration stabilising but departures at record annual high of 127,833

Thursday, 23 January 2025

Immigration and emigration stabilised into a settled, less dramatic pattern during the latter half of last year, an update from Stats NZ appears to confirm.

However, that didn’t stop the number of people leaving New Zealand hitting a record high of just under 128,000 in the year to end of November, according to its estimates.

Stats NZ estimates that between March and November last year, net monthly migration moderated to a net gain of about 2000 migrants a month, coming in at 2200 in the month of November.

It estimates annual net migration in the year to the end of November at 30,600, down from 133,300 in the previous 12 month period.

But beneath those figures, the churn in comings and goings has been much higher.

During the eight months to the end of November about a net 10,000 people have been leaving New Zealand to live elsewhere each month, with about a net 12,000 migrants arriving to replace them.

That pattern — and much larger movements both ways in the preceding four months — has seen a big net loss of 72,936 New Zealand citizens over the year to the end of November, offset largely by 60,300 arrivals of Indian, Chinese and Filipino citizens.

Stats NZ classifies people as migrants if it expects them to spend at least 12 of the following 15 months here or overseas, meaning its figures can capture the likes of students and people embarking on working holidays, as well as people changing their country of residence more permanently.

New Zealand lost a net 30,100 people to Australia in the year to the end of June, with 47,500 people leaving for Australia and 17,400 going in the opposite direction, it estimated.

“Traditionally, there has been a net migration loss from New Zealand to Australia,” it noted.

“This averaged about 30,000 a year from 2004 to 2013, and 3000 a year from 2014 to 2019.”