The British and Irish immigrants brought aspects of their own culture to New Zealand and also influenced Māori culture, particularly with the introduction of Christianity. As of 2022, the agency is New Zealand’s largest employer, consolidating the DHBs’ combined work force of 80,000, with an estimated annual operating budget of NZ$20 billion and an asset base of about NZ$24 billion. The New Zealand Government established it to replace the country’s 20 district health boards (DHBs) on 1 July 2022.
Its exclusive economic zone is one of the world’s largest, covering more than 15 times its land area. The nearest continent is Australia to the west north west, with the shortest distance between the Australian and New Zealand mainlands being roughly 1,487 kilometers (924 miles) across the Tasman Sea, specifically between Tasmania and Fiordland. In 1947, New Zealand adopted the Statute of Westminster, confirming that the British Parliament could no longer legislate for the country without its consent. In 1886, New Zealand annexed the volcanic Kermadec Islands, about 1,000 km (620 mi) northeast of Auckland. Following these armed conflicts, large areas of Māori land were confiscated by the government to meet settler demands. Armed conflict began between the colonial government and Māori in 1843 with the Wairau Affray over land and disagreements over sovereignty.
The first European visitor to New Zealand, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, named the islands Staten Land, believing they were part of the Staten Landt that Jacob Le Maire had sighted off the southern end of South America. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and subsequently developed a distinctive Māori culture. The Maori language is used on sign posts, at Maori culture concerts, as secondary names of government departments, on the Maori-language television channel, and on a number of tribal radio stations. New Zealand’s landscape ranges from the fjord-like sounds of the southwest to the tropical beaches of the far north.
It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the whole country before the arrival of Europeans; Aotearoa originally referred to just the North Island. The next year, in 1643, Hendrik Brouwer proved that the South American land was just a small island, and Dutch cartographers subsequently renamed Tasman’s discovery Nova Zeelandia from Latin, after the Dutch province of Zeeland. New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes. It retains visible levels of inequality, including structural disparities between its Māori and European populations. Recognised as a middle power, New Zealand ranks very highly in international measures of quality of life and human rights and has one of the lowest levels of perceived corruption in the world.
New Zealand Government
It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Smaller islands include Stewart Island, which lies south of South Island; Waiheke and Great Barrier islands, near the north end of North Island; and the Chatham Islands, more than 800 km east of South Island. Despite New Zealand’s isolation, the country has been fully engaged in international affairs since the early 20th century, being an active member of a number of intergovernmental institutions, including the United Nations.
- Today, New Zealand enjoys particularly close relations with the United States and is one of its major non-NATO allies, as well as with Australia, with a “Trans-Tasman” identity between citizens of the latter being common.
- The British government’s residual legislative powers were later removed by the Constitution Act 1986, and final rights of appeal to British courts were abolished in 2003.
- The Adventure Capital of New Zealand is Queenstown.
- In 1951, the United Kingdom became increasingly focused on its European interests, while New Zealand joined Australia and the United States in the ANZUS security treaty.
- Smaller islands include Stewart Island, which lies south of South Island; Waiheke and Great Barrier islands, near the north end of North Island; and the Chatham Islands, more than 800 km east of South Island.
Regions and external territories
The early European settlers divided New Zealand into provinces, which had a degree of autonomy. One example of structural inequality in New Zealand can be seen in the criminal justice system. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission has asserted that there is strong, consistent evidence that structural discrimination is a real and ongoing socioeconomic issue. But this is untrue of local council elections; a historically low 36% of eligible New Zealanders voted in the 2022 local elections, compared with an already low 42% turnout in 2019. New Zealand ranks highly for civic participation in the political process, with 82% voter turnout during recent general elections, compared to an OECD average of 69%. New Zealand’s judiciary, headed by the chief justice, includes the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, the High Court, and subordinate courts.
Health New Zealand is charged with working alongside the Public Health Agency to manage the provision of healthcare services in New Zealand. Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora is the primary publicly funded healthcare system of New Zealand. As of 2023update, New Zealand allocated about 9.6 percent of its GDP to healthcare, slightly above the OECD average of 8.8 percent. The OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment ranks New Zealand as the 28th best in the OECD for maths, 13th best for science, and 11th best for reading. In 2021, in the population aged 25–64, 13% had no formal qualification, 21% had a school qualification, 28% had a tertiary certificate or diploma, and 35% have a bachelor’s degree or higher. There are 13 school years and attending state (public) schools is free to New Zealand citizens and permanent residents from a person’s 5th birthday to the end of the calendar year following their 19th birthday.
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Christianity is the predominant religion in New Zealand, although nearly 40 percent of the population has no religious affiliation. Successive government policies on the relationship between Maori and non-Maori people have worsened race relations. English and Maori are the two official languages, although most visitors would find New Zealand exclusively an English-speaking country. A result of Pacific Island immigration is that South Auckland has become the world’s largest Polynesian city. About 70 percent of New Zealand’s population is of European descent, mostly English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, and Dutch. New Zealand once had about 20 times more sheep than people; by 2001 there were only 12 times as many.
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New Zealand has a highly varied terrain with mountain ranges and hill country dominating the landscape. What type of government does New Zealand have? What is the population of New Zealand? Immigration from other areas—Asia, Africa, and eastern Europe—has also made a mark, and New Zealand culture today reflects these many influences. New Zealand also has a unique array of vegetation and animal life, much of which developed during the country’s prolonged isolation.
New Zealand has competitive international teams in rugby union, rugby league, netball, cricket, softball, and sailing. Māori participation in European sports was particularly evident in rugby, and the country’s team performs a haka, a traditional Māori challenge, before international matches. Horse racing is one of the most popular spectator sports in New Zealand and was part of the “rugby, racing, betista casino login and beer” subculture during the 1960s. The highest-grossing New Zealand films are Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Boy, The World’s Fastest Indian, Whale Rider, Once Were Warriors, Tinā, Heavenly Creatures, What We Do in the Shadows and The Piano.
- The supremacy of parliament over the Crown and other government institutions was established in England by the Bill of Rights 1689 and has been ratified as law in New Zealand.
- The early European settlers divided New Zealand into provinces, which had a degree of autonomy.
- What is the population of New Zealand?
- In the First World War, New Zealand recorded the highest casualties per head of population of any combatant nation.
- What is the capital of New Zealand?
- The southern and southwestern parts of the South Island have a cooler and cloudier climate, with around 1,400–1,600 hours.
New Zealand’s population increased at a rate of 1.9% per year in the seven years ended June 2020. The 2023 New Zealand census enumerated a resident population of 4,993,923, an increase of 6.3% over the 2018 census figure. The New Zealand Space Agency was created by the government in 2016 for space policy, regulation and sector development. The country’s railways were privatised in 1993 but were re-nationalised by the government in stages between 2004 and 2008.
The Māori loanword Pākehā has been used to refer to New Zealanders of European descent, although some reject this name. In the 2023 census, 62.1% of residents responded as being ethnically New Zealand European, and 17.8% responded as being ethnically Māori. By 2050, the median age is projected to rise to 43 years and the percentage of people 60 years of age and older to rise from 18% to 29%. While New Zealand is experiencing sub-replacement fertility, with a total fertility rate of 1.6 in 2020, the fertility rate is above the OECD average.
For instance, in 2016, Auckland was ranked the world’s third most liveable city and Wellington the twelfth by the Mercer Quality of Living Survey. Most private and commercial research organisations in New Zealand focus on the agricultural and fisheries sectors. Their role is to research and develop new science, knowledge, products and services across the economic, environmental, social and cultural spectrum for the benefit of New Zealand.
New Zealand has an adult literacy rate of 99%, and over half of the population aged 15 to 29 hold a tertiary qualification. Hindus are the second largest religious minority, forming the 2.9% of population, followed by Muslims on 1.5%. Christians are the single largest religious group, forming 32.3% of the population, compared to 36.5% in 2018. New Zealand Sign Language was reported to be understood by 22,986 people (0.5%); it became one of New Zealand’s official languages in 2006. New Zealand achieved a record net migration gain of 135,500 people in the year ended October 2023. In the 2023 census, 28.8% of people counted were not born in New Zealand, up from 27.4% in the 2018 census.
A developed country, New Zealand was the first to introduce a minimum wage and give women the right to vote. Reflecting this, New Zealand’s culture mainly derives from Māori and early British settlers but has recently broadened from increased immigration. Subsequently, a series of conflicts between the colonial government and Māori tribes resulted in the alienation and confiscation of large amounts of Māori land. The country’s varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps (Kā Tiritiri o te Moana), owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions.
The government sold its telecommunications company, railway network, a number of radio stations, and two financial institutions. The formal relationship with the U.S. changed, in 1986, however, after the Labour government adopted an anti-nuclear position, which ended visits of American warships. New Zealand is a party to the ANZUS security treaty between Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S.
The country’s isolation delayed the influence of European artistic trends allowing local artists to develop their own distinctive style of regionalism. Since European arrival paintings and photographs have been dominated by landscapes, originally not as works of art but as factual portrayals of New Zealand. As part of the resurgence of Māori culture, the traditional crafts of carving and weaving are now more widely practised, and Māori artists are increasing in number and influence. The largely rural life in early New Zealand led to the image of New Zealanders as rugged, industrious problem solvers. However, Māori still regard their allegiance to tribal groups as a vital part of their identity, and Māori kinship roles resemble those of other Polynesian peoples.
Geothermal power is also a significant generator of electricity, with several large stations located across the Taupō Volcanic Zone in the North Island. The majority of the country’s electricity supply is generated from hydroelectric power, with major schemes on the Waikato, Waitaki and Clutha / Mata-Au rivers, as well as at Manapouri. New Zealand’s wine industry has followed a similar trend to dairy, the number of vineyards doubling over the same period, overtaking wool exports for the first time in 2007. In 2017, international visitor arrivals were expected to increase at a rate of 5.4% annually up to 2022. Tourism plays a significant role in the economy, contributing $12.9 billion (or 5.6%) to New Zealand’s total GDP and supporting 7.5% of the total workforce in 2016. The service sector is the largest sector in the economy, followed by manufacturing and construction and then farming and raw material extraction.
In the mid-1980s New Zealand deregulated its agricultural sector by phasing out subsidies over a three-year period. Living standards in New Zealand fell behind those of Australia and Western Europe, and by 1982 New Zealand had the lowest per-capita income of all the developed nations surveyed by the World Bank. In 1973, New Zealand’s export market was reduced when the United Kingdom joined the European Economic Community and other compounding factors, such as the 1973 oil and 1979 energy crises, led to a severe economic depression. High demand for agricultural products from the United Kingdom and the United States helped New Zealanders achieve higher living standards than both Australia and Western Europe in the 1950s and 1960s. The first shipment of refrigerated meat on the Dunedin in 1882 led to the establishment of meat and dairy exports to Britain, a trade which provided the basis for strong economic growth in New Zealand. Historically, extractive industries have contributed strongly to New Zealand’s economy, focusing at different times on sealing, whaling, flax, gold, kauri gum, and native timber.