Dunedin's grip on the title of New Zealand's fifth largest city has come into question as the latest figures from Statistics New Zealand suggest Tauranga may have eclipsed the city.
The Estimated Resident Population: Urban Areas statistics show Tauranga's population has increased 1.5% (1750) to 116,000 people during the past 12 months - 1100 people more than Dunedin.
However, another set of figures on the same Statistics New Zealand website, the Estimated Resident Population: Territorial Authorities, shows the population of Dunedin City is 122,900 - 12,400 people more than Tauranga.
Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby has been vocal in the media, boasting about the city's new-found status based on the Urban Areas statistics.
He has even gone so far as to suggest it, too, should get its own fixed camera for TV One's weather reports.
However, Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin has taken issue with the Urban Area statistics.
He said Dunedin City was made up of many communities and to use statistics that might have estimated the city's population without including places like Mosgiel was not sensible.
Dunedin's official population figures included everyone who lived within the Dunedin City Council boundary, which covered the area from Waikouaiti south to Waihola and as far inland as Middlemarch and Hyde.
"What other way can you do it? Statistics - you can use them any way you want.
''But if you want to make proper comparisons, you've got to line up apples with apples.
"Any other way of doing it - micro analysing - it just doesn't make sense."
