One in seven people are Maori: census

In the last 100 years New Zealand's Maori population has increased 11-fold and now one in seven people is Maori, census results released today show.

The Department of Statistics Census 2001 snapshot showed New Zealand's Maori population was 526,281, substantially up on the 45,549 recorded in the 1901 census.

Since 1991 the Maori population had jumped 21 per cent.

Ninety per cent lived in the North Island, with 60 per cent in the Northland, Auckland, Waikato or the Bay of Plenty regions, the snapshot showed.

One in four Maori people (127,629) lived in the Auckland region, and nationally one in six lived in a rural area.

Northland tribe Ngapuhi had the biggest population with more than 100,000 members. It was followed by the East Coast's Ngati Porou with about 60,000 people, and the South Island's Ngai Tahu with just under 40,000.

Nine in every 20 people who lived in the Gisborne region were Maori.

There were 95.7 Maori males, down from the 97.2 in 1991, for every 100 Maori females.

Ninety-nine per cent of Maori people were born in New Zealand.

Since 1991 the median age of Maori people has risen two years to 22. Maori aged over 65 numbered one in 30, compared with the one in 40 recorded a decade ago.

One-quarter of ethnic Maori spoke te reo Maori , but of those about half were under 25.

The median annual income for Maori adults was $14,800 for the year ended March 31, 2001. In the same period, Maori aged 45-49 had the highest median income of all Maori, being $21,800.

One in 20 Maori earned over $50,000.

Fifty-six per cent of Maori were employed in 2001 compared with the 43 per cent in 1991. Twenty-three per cent of Maori females were employed as service and sales workers, whereas 25 per cent of Maori men were plant and machine operators and assemblers.

- NZPA