By Asia Samachar | New Zealand |
Panjabi has been identified as the fastest growing language in New Zealand, according to data from the nation’s latest census.
Among the most widely spoken languages, the growth between the 2018 and 2023 censuses was fastest for Panjabi, which is spoken in India and Pakistan (up 45.1% or 15,429 people), Tagalog, a Filipino language (up 37.5% or 16,239 people), and Afrikaans (up 32.7% or 12,075 people).
Those who identify as European or Pākehā make up 67.8% of the population followed Māori at 17.8%. They are tailed by Indians (5.8&), Chinese (5.6%) and Samoans (4.3%).
People of Asian ethnicities make up 17.3%, including the country’s Filipino community which has grown by nearly 50% since 2018, an increase of more than 35,000 people to total 108,297.
The data also showed that Auckland continued to be the most ethnically diverse region. While half the population have a European ethnicity, it was the region with the highest proportion of people with Asian ethnicities (31.3% compared with 17.3% nationally) and Pacific ethnicities (16.6% compared with 8.9% nationally).
The 2023 Census showed that people living in Aotearoa New Zealand identified with a wide range of ethnicities – and spoke over 150 languages. Additionally, while most of the population were born here, New Zealand was also home to people born in a diverse range of countries.
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“Just under 30 percent of New Zealanders were born overseas, and the census recorded well over 200 different birthplaces,” deputy government statistician and deputy chief executive insights and statistics Rachael Milicich said. “Pretty much every part of the world is represented here, from people born in Iceland in the north, to Argentina in the south.”
Of the census usually resident population count, 3.5 million people were born in New Zealand and 1.4 million were born overseas.
The census, conducted in early 2023, placed New Zealand’s official population just shy of 5 million, at 4,993,923. Nearly a million people (one in five) are of Māori descent.
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