Those were a few of the highlights for the South from 2023 census data released yesterday.
The Wellington and Otago regions had the lowest average number of children born per woman, at 1.4, which is well below the population replacement rate of about 2.1.
However, New Zealand’s resident population grew by 6.3% since the 2018 census, almost reaching 5 million.
The proportion of people born overseas inched up from 27.4% in 2018 to 28.8% last year.
For Otago and Southland, no city or district had a population decline.
Dunedin’s usually resident population count shifted from 126,255 to 128,901.
The big mover was Queenstown Lakes - it jumped from 28,224 in 2013 to 39,153 in 2018, and to 47,808 last year.
Stats NZ released a significant data set in May and disclosed more information yesterday.
One category that could be isolated was dwellings under construction.
Otago had 1245 and Queenstown Lakes had the lion’s share of them — 828.
The total number of dwellings in Otago increased to 112,473 and Dunedin’s share was 54,627.
Southland had 46,761 dwellings, including 24,048 in Invercargill.
Invercargill’s total was just short of the 25,734 at Queenstown Lakes, although more of Invercargill’s dwellings were occupied.
Nationally, there was a major decline in access to telephone landlines.
Household internet access increased to 90.5% and Queenstown Lakes led the way with 95.1%
Queenstown Lakes District Mayor Glyn Lewers was not surprised by the area’s growth.
"We’re going through growing pains here," he said.
The district council sought to try to get ahead of population growth in its decision-making, he said.
