Nearly a million people living in Aotearoa New Zealand identify as M\u0101ori and that number is likely to pass the million mark by 2033, according to Stats NZ\u2019s latest estimated figures.<\/p>\n
As of June 2025, around 932,000 people identified as M\u0101ori \u2013 or 18% of the country\u2019s population. Sean Broughton, Stats NZ\u2019s population and housing spokesperson said that\u2019s expected to rise to 20% by 2048.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur M\u0101ori ethnic population is growing at a faster rate than Aotearoa New Zealand\u2019s population overall, mainly because of higher-than-average birth rates combined with a younger age structure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between 2012 and 2025, M\u0101ori births averaged about 17,000 a year and, as those born since 2000 reached childbearing age, that could exceed 19,000 by the late 2030s.<\/p>\n
Inter-ethnic partnering has also added to the growth in numbers \u2013 about one-quarter of M\u0101ori births were from non-M\u0101ori mothers with M\u0101ori fathers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdentifying with multiple ethnicities is common for M\u0101ori,\u201d Broughton said. \u201cChildren and parents of M\u0101ori ethnicity will often identify with other ethnicities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Figures from the 2023 Census showed that 59% of the M\u0101ori ethnic population identified with other ethnicities:<\/p>\n
53% identified with European ethnicities11% identified with Pacific ethnicities2% identified with Asian ethnicities0.4% identified with Middle Eastern\/Latin American\/African ethnicities.<\/p>\n
Ethnicity is a self-determined cultural affiliation, and ethnic populations overlapped because people can and do identify with multiple ethnicities, according to Stats NZ.<\/p>\n
There were almost 5000 M\u0101ori deaths in the June 2025 year. That figure was projected to gradually increase as people grew older \u2013 the same as other ethnic groups.<\/p>\n
In terms of aging, the 65+ aged M\u0101ori ethnic population was anticipated to increase from 75,000 in 2025 to around 180,000 in 2048.<\/p>\n
The number of those aged 40 to 64 years was likely to grow \u201csignificantly\u201d from 230,000 in 2025 to around 370,000 in 2048.<\/p>\n
The median age for M\u0101ori ethnicity continued to climb although it was still younger than the overall New Zealand population. It was likely to increase from its current age of 28 to 35 in 2048. In 2006 it was 23 and 20 in 1991.<\/p>\n
That compared to the overall New Zealand population median age at 38, likely to climb to 43 in 2048.<\/p>\n
Stats NZ also produced reports on M\u0101ori descent population based on whakapapa.<\/p>\n
As of June 2023, people living in Aotearoa New Zealand of M\u0101ori descent was at 1,036,000 compared to the M\u0101ori ethnic population of 911,000 at the same date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly a million people living in Aotearoa New Zealand identify as M\u0101ori and that number is likely to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[81991,12553,4432,111,43,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-140645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-hauora","9":"tag-iwi-hapu","10":"tag-maori-issues","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}