Increasing numbers of New Zealanders are renting their homes, rather than buying them.

This year's Census shows the number of dwellings owned by their occupants has fallen by 116,808 in the past 10 years, from 860,760 to 743,952.

The number of households paying rent rose almost 100,000 in the same time, from 290,124 to 388,272.

Ten years ago, about 80 per cent of dwellings were owner-occupied. Now the figure is about 60 per cent.

A spokesman for Housing Minister Chris Carter said the new figures showed more people renting, particularly in Auckland.

The 2001 Census showed that nationally, 67.8 per cent of people lived in dwellings they owned, but that figure was down to 66.8 per cent this year, the spokesman said.

In Auckland, the 2001 figure was 66 per cent; this year, it was 65 per cent.

"The minister took out of the latest figures that home ownership trends are still moving downwards," the spokesman said.

But it was almost impossible to draw firm conclusions by comparing the 2001 and 2006 Censuses because Statistics NZ had altered some questions, he said.

This year's Census distinguished between people who owned their homes directly and those who lived in a house owned by a trust, he said.

And although many people were living in houses owned by their own family trusts, this made comparisons difficult, the spokesman said.

Statistics NZ warned that because of classification and questionnaire changes, comparisons between 1996, 2001 and 2006 should be treated with caution.

This year's survey showed two-thirds of privately occupied dwellings were either owned by their occupants (54.5 per cent) or held in family trusts (12.3 per cent).

The remaining third were not owned by their occupants, it said.

A Statistics NZ spokeswoman said the number of dwellings had increased by 200,000 since 1996, partly because of the apartment boom but also because of the rising population.

Carter predicted in September that the new Census figures would show the tenure shift because an increasing number of 25- to 44-year-olds were unable to buy houses.

The discrepancy between the wealth of homeowners and non-homeowners had become much wider in the past five years because the young tended not to own homes but the older did, he said.