Departures head arrivals in latest migration figures

1.00pm

A change in the direction of the migration tide shows in statistics released today.

March figures issued today by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) showed more people left New Zealand for the long-term than migrated here, the first time since May 2001 that monthly migration exceeded immigration.

Permanent and long-term departures in March 2004 were 5800, while arrivals were 5500, SNZ said in a statement. Non-New Zealand citizen arrivals were down 1400, with China accounting for more than half of the drop with 800 fewer arrivals.

At the same time, there were 400 more people leaving New Zealand permanently or for the long-term than last March.

In the year ended March 2004 there was a net migration gain of 28,000 -- 33 per cent lower than the net inflow of 41,600 people the previous March year, SNZ said.

"Permanent and long-term arrivals have now dropped in each of the past 13 months when compared with the same month a year earlier, while permanent or long-term departures have increased in each of the past eight months."

There were net inflows of migrants from China (7400), India (4100) and Japan (2100) in the year ended March 2004, and also a substantial net inflow from Britain -- 10,300, up 43 per cent on the March 2003 year figure.

At the same time, 11,000 people left for Australia. There were 11,300 departures to Australia in the March 2003 year, and 16,100 in the March 2002 year.

SNZ also reported a boost in visitor arrival numbers in March -- up 17,900 or 9 per cent.

In March 2004, there were more visitors from Australia (up 14,200, or 23 per cent) and Britain (up 3200, or 13 per cent) than in March 2003.

However, those visitors were staying in New Zealand for a shorter time -- the number of stay days for all visitor arrivals in March 2004 decreased by 4 per cent on the previous March, from 4.00 million days to 3.82 million days.

"The average length of stay was 18 days in March 2004, compared with 21 days in March 2003," SNZ said.

In the year ended March 2004, there were 2.163 million visitor arrivals, up 101,000 or 5 per cent on the previous March year.

There were more visitors from Australia (up 105,000), Britain (up 36,300), Germany (up 4500) and the United States (up 3700), but fewer visitors from Japan (down 22,500), China (down 15,400) and Taiwan (down 9900), compared with the year ended March 2003.

- NZPA