Non-Māori Polynesian cultures are also apparent, with Pasifika, the world’s largest Polynesian festival, now an annual event in Auckland. Immigrants from India, China and the Philippines are the largest contributors to New Zealand’s population growth. New Zealand is a predominantly urban country, with 84.5% of the population living in urban areas and 51.4% in the seven cities with populations exceeding 100,000. In 1921, the country’s median centre of population was in the Tasman Sea west of Levin in Manawatū-Whanganui; by 2017, it had moved 280 km (170 mi) north to near Kawhia in Waikato.
New Zealand became a dominion in 1907; it gained full statutory independence in 1947, retaining the monarch as head of state. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which paved the way for Britain’s declaration of sovereignty later that year and the establishment of the Crown Colony of New Zealand in 1841. In 1769 the British explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to set foot on and map New Zealand.
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- About 82% of New Zealand’s indigenous vascular plants are endemic, covering 1,944 species across 65 genera.
- The most popular countries of origin for overseas-born residents were England (14.6%), mainland China (10.2%), India (10.0%), the Philippines (7.0%), South Africa (6.7%), Australia (6.1%), Fiji (4.8%) and Samoa (4.3%).
- The Māori were the first people to reach New Zealand, followed by the early European settlers.
- Since human arrival, almost half of the country’s vertebrate species have become extinct, including at least 51 birds, three frogs, three lizards, one freshwater fish, and one bat.
- Nearly one-quarter of highly skilled workers live overseas, mostly in Australia and Britain, which is the largest proportion from any developed nation.
The two main islands are named North and South islands in English, or Te-Ika-a-Maui and Te Wai Pounamu, respectively, in Maori. Discover vibrant cities like the largest city Auckland and capital city Wellington, where culture and entertainment thrive. New Zealand is about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long (north-south) and about 280 miles (450 km) across at its widest point. New Zealand was the largest country in Polynesia when it was annexed by Great Britain in 1840. Participation in the world wars gave some New Zealand writers a new perspective on New Zealand culture and with the postwar expansion of universities local literature flourished.
- New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.
- Since then, the country has been a sovereign constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations.
- New Zealand conservationists have pioneered several methods to help threatened wildlife recover, including island sanctuaries, pest control, wildlife translocation, fostering, and ecological restoration of islands and other protected areas.
- After the 1982 UNCLOS, the islands contributed significantly to New Zealand’s exclusive economic zone.
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- New Zealand’s population increased at a rate of 1.9% per year in the seven years ended June 2020.
After 1840, many issues to do with sovereignty and land ownership remained unresolved and, for a long time, invisible while Maori lived in rural communities. British migrants form the largest single group (30 percent), but new migrants are drawn from many nations, increasingly those of East Asia. Those of full or part-Maori ancestry comprise about 15 percent while most of the remainder are of Asian and Pacific Island origin. Vineyards have proliferated since the 1990s in areas of the country, with a focus on high-quality sauvignon blanc and pinot noir.
The government sold its telecommunications company, railway network, a number of radio stations, and two financial institutions. The betista casino login formal relationship with the U.S. changed, in 1986, however, after the Labour government adopted an anti-nuclear position, which ended visits of American warships. New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.
New Zealand’s population increased at a rate of 1.9% per year in the seven years ended June 2020. The 2023 New Zealand census enumerated a resident population of 4,993,923, an increase of 6.3% over the 2018 census figure. The New Zealand Space Agency was created by the government in 2016 for space policy, regulation and sector development. The country’s railways were privatised in 1993 but were re-nationalised by the government in stages between 2004 and 2008.
Since human arrival, almost half of the country’s vertebrate species have become extinct, including at least 51 birds, three frogs, three lizards, one freshwater fish, and one bat. More penguin species are found in New Zealand than in any other country, with 13 of the world’s 18 penguin species. The flora and fauna of New Zealand were originally thought to have originated from New Zealand’s fragmentation off from Gondwana; however, more recent evidence postulates species resulted from dispersal.
New Zealand nationality law treats all parts of the realm equally, so most people born in New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau, and the Ross Dependency are New Zealand citizens.n 8 Because of financial pressures and the desire to consolidate railways, education, land sales, and other policies, government was centralised and the provinces were abolished in 1876. According to the Ministry of Justice, Māori are overrepresented, comprising 45% of New Zealanders convicted of crimes and 53% of those imprisoned, while only being 16.5% of the population. As of 2023,update the country is ranked second in the strength of its democratic institutions, and third in government transparency and lack of corruption. The supremacy of parliament over the Crown and other government institutions was established in England by the Bill of Rights 1689 and has been ratified as law in New Zealand.
The Māori were the first people to reach New Zealand, followed by the early European settlers. While the demonym for a New Zealand citizen is New Zealander, the informal “Kiwi” is commonly used both internationally and by locals. For legacy systems which can only accept one ethnicity, people are usually allocated to a single ethnicity based on a pre-determined priority order, with Māori given highest priority and New Zealand European given lowest priority. Statistics New Zealand allows people to choose multiple ethnicities and reports ethnic data based on total responses, therefore ethnicities add up to more than 100%. The median age of the New Zealand population at the 2018 census was 37.4 years, with life expectancy in 2017–2019 being 80.0 years for males and 83.5 years for females.
Charles III is the country’s king and is represented by the governor-general, Cindy Kiro. New Zealand and Australia have a strong relationship and are considered to share a strong Trans-Tasman identity, stemming from centuries of British colonisation. During the 1980s, New Zealand underwent major economic changes that transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy. The official languages are English, Māori, and New Zealand Sign Language, with the local dialect of English being dominant.
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The currency is the New Zealand dollar, informally known as the “Kiwi dollar”; it also circulates in the Cook Islands (see Cook Islands dollar), Niue, Tokelau, and the Pitcairn Islands. New Zealand has an advanced market economy, ranked 16th in the 2022update Human Development Index, and fourth in the 2022update Index of Economic Freedom. It has contributed forces to several regional and global peacekeeping missions, such as those in Cyprus, Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Sinai, Angola, Cambodia, the Iran–Iraq border, Bougainville, East Timor, and the Solomon Islands. In addition to Vietnam and the two world wars, New Zealand fought in the Second Boer War, the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency, the Gulf War, and the Afghanistan War.
The colony gained a representative government in 1852, and the first Parliament met in 1854. These conflicts, mainly in the North Island, saw thousands of imperial troops and the Royal Navy come to New Zealand and became known as the New Zealand Wars. New Zealand was administered as a dependency of the Colony of New South Wales until becoming a separate Crown colony, the Colony of New Zealand, on 3 May 1841. In 1835, following an announcement of impending French settlement by Charles de Thierry, the nebulous United Tribes of New Zealand sent a Declaration of Independence to King William IV of the United Kingdom asking for protection. The Māori population declined to around 40% of its pre-contact level during the 19th century; introduced diseases were the major factor. Following Cook, New Zealand was visited by numerous European and North American whaling, sealing, and trading ships.
Because of its far-flung outlying islands and long coastline, the country has extensive marine resources. Since 1937, the islands are uninhabited except for about six people at Raoul Island station. In 1830, mapmakers began to use “North” and “South” on their maps to distinguish the two largest islands, and by 1907, this was the accepted norm. Māori had several traditional names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui (‘the fish of Māui’) for the North Island and Te Waipounamu (‘the waters of greenstone’) or Te Waka o Aoraki (‘the canoe of Aoraki’) for the South Island.
The British and Irish immigrants brought aspects of their own culture to New Zealand and also influenced Māori culture, particularly with the introduction of Christianity. As of 2022, the agency is New Zealand’s largest employer, consolidating the DHBs’ combined work force of 80,000, with an estimated annual operating budget of NZ$20 billion and an asset base of about NZ$24 billion. The New Zealand Government established it to replace the country’s 20 district health boards (DHBs) on 1 July 2022.
The country’s isolation delayed the influence of European artistic trends allowing local artists to develop their own distinctive style of regionalism. Since European arrival paintings and photographs have been dominated by landscapes, originally not as works of art but as factual portrayals of New Zealand. As part of the resurgence of Māori culture, the traditional crafts of carving and weaving are now more widely practised, and Māori artists are increasing in number and influence. The largely rural life in early New Zealand led to the image of New Zealanders as rugged, industrious problem solvers. However, Māori still regard their allegiance to tribal groups as a vital part of their identity, and Māori kinship roles resemble those of other Polynesian peoples.
New Zealand Economy
New Zealand has a highly varied terrain with mountain ranges and hill country dominating the landscape. What type of government does New Zealand have? What is the population of New Zealand? Immigration from other areas—Asia, Africa, and eastern Europe—has also made a mark, and New Zealand culture today reflects these many influences. New Zealand also has a unique array of vegetation and animal life, much of which developed during the country’s prolonged isolation.
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The entry of Britain into the European Community in the early 1970s, however, forced New Zealand to expand its trade relations with other countries. Economically the country was dependent on the export of agricultural products, especially to Great Britain. The ascent of Mount Everest by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953 was one of the defining moments of the 20th century.
Ethnicity and immigration
New Zealand administers the South Pacific island group of Tokelau and claims a section of the Antarctic continent. The capital city is Wellington and the largest urban area Auckland; both are located on the North Island. New Zealand is a remote land—one of the last sizable territories suitable for habitation to be populated and settled—and lies more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) southeast of Australia, its nearest neighbour.
New Zealand is heavily dependent on international trade, particularly in agricultural products. Since 1984, successive governments engaged in major macroeconomic restructuring (known first as Rogernomics and then Ruthanasia), rapidly transforming New Zealand from a protectionist and highly regulated economy to a liberalised free-trade economy. According to the 2024 Global Peace Index, New Zealand is the 4th most peaceful country in the world. New Zealand is involved in the Pacific Islands Forum, the Pacific Community, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (including the East Asia Summit). A large proportion of New Zealand’s aid goes to these countries, and many Pacific people migrate to New Zealand for employment. In 2013update there were about 650,000 New Zealand citizens living in Australia, which is equivalent to 15% of the population of New Zealand.
In July 2023, New Zealand and the European Union entered into the EU–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement, which eliminated tariffs on several goods traded between the two regions. New Zealand’s main trading partners, as at June 2018update, are China (NZ$27.8b), Australia ($26.2b), the European Union ($22.9b), the United States ($17.6b), and Japan ($8.4b). Poverty has a disproportionately high effect in ethnic-minority households, with a quarter (23.3%) of Māori children and almost a third (28.6%) of Pacific Islander children living in poverty as of 2020update. Nearly one-quarter of highly skilled workers live overseas, mostly in Australia and Britain, which is the largest proportion from any developed nation. New Zealand has experienced a series of “brain drains” since the 1970s that still continue today. However, the 2008 financial crisis had a major effect on New Zealand, with the GDP shrinking for five consecutive quarters, the longest recession in over thirty years, and unemployment rising back to 7% in late 2009.