The National Party's strongest southern electorate was the only one in the South to vote for a change of flag.
Even there, the voting was close, with 50.4% of Clutha-Southland voting for Kyle Lockwood's silver fern design in the referendum.
In the six electorates which cover the lower South Island, 42.2% voted for change, less than the 43.2% for the silver fern nationally.
All the southern electorates, apart from Maori electorate Te Tai Tonga, gave more votes to National than any other party in the 2014 election.
It was the electorates where National performed strongest during the 2014 election that voted most strongly for change.
In Waitaki, 49.4% of people voted for change, while in Te Tai Tonga - where National won only 14.4% of the vote in the last election - 31.9% voted for change.
Both Dunedin electorates voted strongly in favour of keeping the current flag, with 35.6% voting for the silver fern in Dunedin North and 38.4% in Dunedin South.
Voter turnout in most southern electorates was greater than the national average of 67.3%.
Four out of the six produced turnouts greater than 70%, and Waitaki led the way with 76.8%.
The New Zealand Herald reported New Zealand's decision to keep the current flag made headlines around the world as soon as the result was announced, including on the BBC, The New York Times, Guardian UK and CNN.
The flag vote was reported throughout other former British colonies, including Australia, Canada, India, Fiji and Malta as well as in the United Kingdom.
But other countries also noted New Zealand's flag decision.
National and state media in the United States posted stories online, including NBC, and the result also made headlines in China, Thailand and Germany.
The New York Times posted a story under the headline "New Zealand, Tempted by Bionic Kiwi and Starry-Eyed Sheep, Keeps Its Flag''.
The existing flag had triumphed ‘‘despite the assertion by Prime Minister John Key that it symbolised a colonial era whose time had passed'', it wrote.
The Belfast Telegraph, like many outlets, noted the alternative design failed to gain the momentum it needed to win, and represented a rare political defeat for John Key.
At the BBC, the headline read "a tangled tale of New Zealand's flag debate''.‘
"The results are in, New Zealanders have spoken. The outcome was close, with just 56.61% of people voting against change, but it is a personal blow for pro-change Prime Minister John Key.''
Canada's The Globe and Mail wrote that New Zealand wasn't going to follow Canada's lead.
"In the 1960s, Canadians abandoned a Union Jack-sporting flag for a new design with a nationally distinctive leaf on it. New Zealanders, faced with the same choice in 2016, said no thanks ... New Zealand's flag saga is over: The old one stays.''
