Total population | |
---|---|
15,849 (2018) 0.3% of New Zealand's population [1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Auckland Region | |
Languages | |
New Zealand English, languages of Africa | |
Religion | |
Christianity, Islam, Traditional African religions |
New Zealanders of African descent represent less than 0.3% of New Zealand's population, although the number has been growing substantially since the 1990s. [2]
In the early 20th century, a small number of African students and professionals came to New Zealand to study or work. In the 1960s and 1970s, larger numbers of African immigrants arrived in New Zealand, including refugees from countries such as Zambia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. [3]
Today, African New Zealanders make up a small but growing portion of the New Zealand population. According to the 2018 New Zealand Census, there were 16,890 people in New Zealand who identified as being of African ancestry. [4]
The history of African New Zealanders dates back to the late 19th century, when the first African immigrants arrived in the country. These early immigrants were mostly students and professionals who came to New Zealand to study or work. [3]
In the early 20th century, African immigration to New Zealand remained relatively small, with only a handful of African students and professionals coming to the country each year. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, larger numbers of African immigrants began to arrive in New Zealand, including refugees from countries such as Zambia, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
In the 1980s and 1990s, African immigration to New Zealand continued to increase with many African immigrants settling in the larger cities of Auckland and Wellington most of the immigrants being refugees, these refugees often arrived with few possessions and had experienced traumatic events in their home countries. Many came from countries in crisis, such as Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, and Zimbabwe, where wars and brutal political regimes had driven thousands from their homes. [3]
African New Zealanders are a diverse and multicultural community, with a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. Their cultural traditions and practices are shaped by the diverse countries and regions from which they or their ancestors come, as well as by their experiences living in New Zealand.
African New Zealanders have a wide variety of cultural practices and traditions, including music, dance, art, food, and dress. Many African New Zealanders participate in cultural events and festivals that celebrate their heritage and traditions, such as the Africa Day Festival, which is held each year in Auckland to celebrate the diversity of African culture. [5]
The demographics of New Zealand encompass the gender, ethnic, religious, geographic, and economic backgrounds of the 5.2 million people living in New Zealand. New Zealanders predominantly live in urban areas on the North Island. The five largest cities are Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, and Tauranga. Few New Zealanders live on New Zealand's smaller islands. Waiheke Island is easily the most populated smaller island with 9,420 residents, while Great Barrier Island, the Chatham and Pitt Islands, and Stewart Island each have populations below 1,000. New Zealand is part of a realm and most people born in the realm's external territories of Tokelau, the Ross Dependency, the Cook Islands and Niue are entitled to New Zealand passports.
African Jewish communities include:
New Zealanders, colloquially known as Kiwis, are people associated with New Zealand, sharing a common history, culture, and language. People of various ethnicities and national origins are citizens of New Zealand, governed by its nationality law.
New Zealanders of European descent are mostly of British and Irish ancestry, with significantly smaller percentages of other European ancestries such as Germans, Poles, French, Dutch, Croats and other South Slavs, Greeks, and Scandinavians. European New Zealanders are also known by the Māori-language loanword Pākehā.
Chinese New Zealanders or Sino-New Zealanders are New Zealanders of Chinese ancestry. The largest subset of Asian New Zealanders, many of the Chinese immigrants came from Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or other countries that have large populations of Chinese diaspora. Today's Chinese New Zealand group is also composed of diasporic communities from Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore. As of 2018, Chinese New Zealanders account for 4.9% of the population of New Zealand, and are the largest Asian ethnic group in New Zealand, accounting for 36.3% of Asian New Zealanders.
African immigration to the United States refers to immigrants to the United States who are or were nationals of modern African countries. The term African in the scope of this article refers to geographical or national origins rather than racial affiliation. From the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 to 2017, Sub-Saharan African-born population in the United States grew to 2.1 million people.
Indian New Zealanders are people of Indian origin or descent who live in New Zealand. The term includes Indians born in New Zealand, as well as immigrants from India, Fiji, other regions of Asia, parts of Africa such as South Africa and East Africa, and from other parts of the world. The term Indian New Zealander applies to any New Zealander with one or both parents of Indian heritage. Although sometimes the Indo-Kiwi definition has been expanded to people with mixed racial parentage with one Indian parent or grandparent, this can be controversial as it generally tends to remove the ethnic heritage or identity of the foreign parent or grandparent, which may be seen as insensitive to those with mixed parentage, who tend to value both their Indian and non-Indian parents and grandparents.
African Australians are Australians descended from the any peoples of Sub-Saharan Africa, including naturalised Australians who are immigrants from various regions in Sub-Saharan Africa and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 census, the number of ancestry responses categorised within Sub-Saharan African ancestral groups as a proportion of the total population amounted to 1.3%.
There is a significant Asian presence in Africa of at least 3 million people. Most have arrived following European settlement in 1930s; however, there is continued immigration to the continent to pursue economic opportunities.
Dutch New Zealanders are New Zealanders of Dutch ancestry. Dutch migration to New Zealand dates back to the earliest period of European colonisation. The 2013 census recorded 19,815 people born in the Netherlands and 28,503 people claiming Dutch ethnicity.
The Auckland Region is New Zealand's most populous territorial authority and Auckland its most populous city. In the 2018 census, 1,571,718 persons declared themselves as residents of the region – an increase of 156,178 people or 11.0% since the 2013 census. The Auckland Region accounts for about one-third (33.4%) of New Zealand's population. Auckland has a large multicultural mix, including the largest Polynesian population in the world.
Japanese New Zealanders are New Zealand citizens of Japanese ancestry, which may include Japanese immigrants and descendants born in New Zealand. Japanese people first began immigrating to New Zealand in the 1890s. Until 1920, 14 Japanese citizens resided in New Zealand. Japanese immigration was halted during the period of the Pacific War and recommenced around the 1950s. From this period onwards, Japanese immigration remained small until the 1990s. In 1997, Japanese peoples were the 19th-largest ethnic group in New Zealand. As of the 2018 census, 18,141 New Zealand residents identify themselves as Japanese New Zealanders.
Arab New Zealanders refers to people from Arab countries, particularly Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, and Jordan and also small groups from Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Yemen and Sudan, who emigrated from their native nations and currently reside in New Zealand. The term also refers to descendants of diasporic Arabians such as descendants of Arab merchants to Asian nations, whose ancestral origins may be traced to merchants hailing from the Southern Arabian nations such as Yemen and Oman and the Arab nations of the Persian gulf region. Most Arab New Zealanders are of Lebanese and Iraqi descent because they were the first Arabs to arrive in New Zealand. Therefore, an Arab New Zealander is a New Zealander of Arab cultural and linguistic heritage or identity whose ancestry traces back to any of various waves of immigrants originating from one or more of the twenty countries comprised by the Arab world.
The term Irish New Zealander refers to New Zealanders of full or partial Irish ancestry. This includes Irish immigrants as well as New Zealanders of Irish descent. The term makes no distinction concerning religion and encompasses both Catholic and Protestant immigrants and their descendants; nonetheless, the chief criterion of distinction between Irish immigrants, especially those who arrived in the nineteenth century, is religion.
German New Zealanders are New Zealand residents of ethnic German ancestry. They comprise a very large amount of New Zealanders in terms of heritage, with some 200,000 people from the country having at least partial German ancestry. New Zealand's community of ethnic German immigrants constitute one of the largest recent European migrant groups in New Zealand, numbering 12,810 in the 2013 census. 36,642 New Zealanders spoke the German language at the 2013 census, making German the seventh-most-spoken language in New Zealand.
Asian New Zealanders are New Zealanders of Asian ancestry . At the 2023 census, 861,573 New Zealanders identifying as being part of the Asian ethnic group, making up 17.3% of New Zealand's population.
Bangladeshi New Zealanders refers to New Zealand citizens or residents who have full or partial Bangladeshi heritage or people who emigrated from Bangladesh and reside in New Zealand. There are around 1,623 Bangladeshis in New Zealand, according to the census in 2013. The largest Bangladeshi communities are mainly present in Auckland with smaller communities in other cities.
Zimbabwean New Zealanders are New Zealand citizens who are fully or partially of Zimbabwean descent or Zimbabwe-born people who reside in New Zealand. They include migrants to New Zealand of people from Zimbabwe, as well as their descendants. Today, over 5,614 people in New Zealand have Zimbabwean ancestry in 2016, making them the second largest source of African immigrants to New Zealand after South Africa.
Pasifika New Zealanders are a pan-ethnic group of New Zealanders associated with, and descended from, the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands outside of New Zealand itself. They form the fourth-largest ethnic grouping in the country, after European descendants, indigenous Māori, and Asian New Zealanders. Over 380,000 people identify as being of Pacific origin, representing 8% of the country's population, with the majority residing in Auckland.