Annual net immigration rises after 15 months of decline

Monday, 14 April 2025

Annual net immigration bucked the recent trend by rising to 32,922 in the year to the end of February, Stats NZ estimates.

The increase ends a 16-month streak that saw net immigration drop from a record of 135,529 in the year to October 2023, to a provisional recent low of 30,932 in the year to January.

An increase in the number of people who are believed to have moved from the United States to New Zealand since the US presidential election in November chipped-in slightly to the up-tick.

Stats NZ estimates 1388 non-New Zealand citizens migrated from the US to New Zealand in three months to the end of February, versus 1127 in the same period a year earlier.

The February figure for non-New Zealand migrant arrivals from the US was 537, which if confirmed would be one of the highest monthly totals from the US on record.

Stats NZ reported the number of people visiting New Zealand from the US had also climbed, with a record 63,700 Americans visiting in the month of February.

That was up 8200 on the same month last year. But the stronger US dollar could have been a factor in driving up tourism from the US.

Overseas visitor arrivals totalled 354,400 in February 2025, a drop of 8400 from February last year.

Of those, 33% were visiting from Australia, 18% from the US and 9% from the UK.

Stats NZ estimates that, when seasonally adjusted, total net monthly immigration was 5340 in the month of February. That would be the highest monthly net migration gain since December 2023.

The broad trends in migration remain the same, however, with an exodus of New Zealand citizens to Australia and other countries continuing, and a large number of migrants continuing to flow in from India, China and the Philippines.

A net 44,100 New Zealand citizens left the country in the year to February, with a net 77,000 non-citizens estimated to have arrived here to live for a year or more.