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NEW ZEALAND'S population continues to rise - slowly. Provisional results of the census held in March and issued last week by Statistics New Zealand show the population increased only 3 per cent, or by 111,108 people, to 3,792,654.
This compared with a 7.2 per cent increase of 246,597 people between the 1991 and 1996 censuses.
Three-quarters of New Zealanders live in the North Island, where the population rose by 99,993, or 3.6 per cent, to 2,849,721. In the South Island, the rise was 11,391, or 1.2 per cent, to 942,213.
Auckland remained the biggest region with 1,165,278 people. Wellington region grew by 8442 to 424461 and Canterbury grew 12,654 to 491,565.
Auckland is the biggest city with 377,382 people, followed by Christchurch, 322,188; Manukau, 281,607; North Shore, 184,287; Waitakere, 167,172; Wellington, 165,945; Dunedin, 116,739; Hamilton, 114,975; and Lower Hutt, 94,719.
Census manager Frank Nolan said the population increase was the result of more births than deaths - the number of babies born each year exceeded deaths by 30,000. This had been offset by a long-term net migration loss - those leaving compared with those entering New Zealand - of about 10,000 people a year.
Big numbers of New Zealanders leaving had been particularly apparent in the past three years. In the year ended this April, 78,759 New Zealanders left permanently or long-term basis, while 67,359 immigrated to New Zealand.
The Tasman region had the fastest growing population with a 10.9 per cent rise to 44.394.
Auckland, where 30.7 per cent of New Zealanders live, was the second-fastest growing region with a population increase of 8.2 per cent, or 88,062.
The biggest drop was in Southland where numbers fell 7.1 per cent, or by 7125 to 93,633.
The contribution of natural increase has been fairly stable at around 31,000 people per year. In contrast, there were notable shifts in the size and direction of the external migration balance. New Zealand gained 4,000 people from migration in 1992, and this climbed to a peak of 30,000 in 1996.
The net gain declined afterwards and in 1999 more people left New Zealand than arrived. This trend has continued to consolidate and in 2000 New Zealand's net loss through permanent and long-term migration was close to 10,000.