Kiwis staying and returning in record numbers

Stuff reported:

Westpac economist Satish Ranchhod said while those coming from overseas to live in New Zealand, much of the gain in net was actually down to fewer Kiwis moving to live overseas, because of the strong job market here.

“Arrivals only account for half of the strong pick-up in net migration that we have seen since 2012,” Ranchhod said.

“The other half relates to flows of New Zealanders in and out of the country. On an annual basis, this is at the lowest level since 1984. New Zealanders are being encouraged to stay onshore or come back from overseas by our positive economic conditions.”

I thought that this couldn't be right. That this is the lowest level of net migration (for NZ citizens) since 1984. And it isn't quite right.

It is actually the lowest level of net migration (for NZ citizens) since 1964!

The data is above. It is for March years. So the lowest level of net migration for NZ citizens since 1964. That is a 53 year record.

The economy can't be going as disastrously as Labour and Greens keep telling us it is, with so few Kiwis leaving and also a lot returning.

In 2001 we lost 814 NZers a week. In 2008 we lost 658 NZers a week. In 2017 we lost only 26 NZers a week.

UPDATE: Westpac has commented:

I was looking over your comment on migration that mentioned our report(https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/04/kiwis_staying_and_returning_in_record_numbers.html ). I did another check of the numbers. I think the difference between the ones you reported and the ones we commented on was just the frequency. If you look at the March year data, you're quite right that the low point was much earlier. However, what we did was a rolling 12-month total. Using those rolling annual total shows that the last time the net outflow of New Zealanders was at these levels was February 1984.

So for any 12 month period it is a record going back to 1984. For March years it is a record back to 1964!

Comments (31)

Login to comment or vote

Add a Comment