New Zealand People

People of New Zealand

First Arrivals

Homo sapiens settlers reached New Zealand only after populating almost all the other habitable areas on Earth.

Archaeological and linguistic evidence suggests that probably several waves of migration came from Eastern Polynesia to New Zealand between AD 800 and 1300. The origins of Maori as a separate people relate to those of their Polynesian ancestors. Maori oral history describes the arrival of the ancestors from Hawaiki (a mythical homeland in tropical Polynesia) by large ocean-going canoes (waka). Migration accounts vary among Maori tribes (iwi), whose members can identify with different waka in their genealogies or whakapapa.

No credible evidence exists of human settlement in New Zealand prior to the Polynesian voyagers; on the other hand, compelling evidence from archaeology, linguistics, and physical anthropology indicates that the first settlers came from East Polynesia and became the maori.

Ethnic groups

New Zealand's ethnic make-up has continued to change, according to 2006 Census results. European remained the largest of the major ethnic groups, with 2,609,592 people (67.6 percent of the population) in 2006.
The Maori ethnic group is the second largest, with 565,329 people (or 14.6 percent).
Of the major ethnic groups, the Asian ethnic group grew the fastest between 2001 and 2006, increasing from 238,176 people in 2001 to reach 354,552 people in 2006 (an increase of almost 50 percent).
Those identifying with the Pacific peoples ethnic group had the second-largest increase from the 2001 Census, up 14.7 percent to total 265,974 people.

The figures above add up to more than the total number of people responding because New Zealand census allowed citizens to specify multiple ethnic identities.

The ethnicity question and coding procedures have changed between each of these censuses, meaning that comparisons over time are not straightforward.

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