Aucklanders flee to the provinces
By KIM KNIGHT - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 15 April 2007
Go south, young man. Or north. Anywhere, in fact, apart from Auckland.
It may be our biggest city, but locals are leaving in droves. In the latest census, the Auckland region recorded the largest net loss of people due to internal migration.
Between 2001 and last year, about 59,000 people moved to the city from other regions - and 76,000 Aucklanders left for the provinces.
It's the reverse of census trends recorded a decade ago, when the city was still gaining internal migrants. Between 1991 and 1996, Auckland won almost 5000 more people from other regions than it lost. But by 2001, the slide had started and the city recorded a net loss of nearly 2400 people to other regions. But now the trickle has turned into a flood of almost 17,000 people. Waikato, with a net gain of 5847 Aucklanders, is the main recipient. Other near neighbours, Bay of Plenty and Northland, scored 3420 each.
"It could be the overflow factor," says Mansoor Khawaja, Statistics New Zealand's principal demographer. "Hamilton is really not very far. There are people who can, probably, if they are brave enough, travel every day. And the housing is better, less expensive."
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