It’s sometimes called the mainland and is a third bigger, but the South Island is home to fewer than one in four Kiwis, new figures reveal.
According to new data released by Statistics New Zealand, more than three-quarters of New Zealanders live in the upper North Island.
At June 30 this year, the North Island was home to 77% of the population, compared to 23% on the South Island.
That equates to about 3.67 million people in the north and 1.1 million in the south.
Stats NZ calculated New Zealand’s median centre of population dividing the country north and south of a single point, which has moved north 280km since 1921.
The point was then near Levin, but is now at Kawhia.
The South Island population grew 1.8% this year, but the busier North Island’s population grew by 2.2%.
The West Coast is the only region with a declining population, falling from 33,100 in 2012 to 32,500 last year and to 32,400 this year.
Figures showed the country’s population density was 18 people per square kilometre, up from 13 in 1991.
Density varied hugely depending on the region, reaching 18,000 per square kilometre in central Auckland.
