New census data shines light on Kiwi living arrangements

The numbers, released by Stats NZ, show a little over a third of families with children have an adult child living with them, up 27.3 percent since 2013. Stats NZ defines an adult child as a child in a family over the age of 18, or one that is employed over the age of 15.

Stats NZ principal analyst, Dr Rosemary Goodyear, the substantial increase in adult children living at home may be due to the cost of living.

The data also shines a light on household information by ethnic group. The Māori, Pacific peoples and Asian ethnic groups all had a marginal increase in the number of households containing at least one member of that group. The European ethnic group was the only one to see a drop since the 2018 census.

On average, households with at least one member of the Pacific peoples ethnic group are the most likely to have five or more people living at that address. Asian and Māori households had 3.3 people per household and Europeans had 2.6 people per household, the lowest group.

79.1 percent of dwellings were European, by far the most. 19.3 percent were Māori, 17.2 percent were Asian and 7.8 percent were Pacific peoples.

There was a decrease in the number of families with children under five. In 2013, the figure was 40.6 percent, and is now 37 percent.

Of sole parents with dependent children, 17.8 percent were male, up from 15.8 in 2013.

The census was undertaken on March 7 2023, requiring all people present in a dwelling on that date to partake. Today was the last scheduled release date for data from 2023. Stats NZ says information is widely used for many purposes like decision-making in sectors like health and education.