KEY POINTS:
Kiwis are still packing their bags for Australia in droves.
New Zealand's loss of population to our trans-tasman neighbour is at its highest level since early this decade, new figures show.
The net outflow of people from New Zealand intending to live permanently, or at least long term, to Australia, was last month at its highest for 6-1/2 years, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said.
In the year to January, 28,600 more people left for Australia as permanent or long term departures (PLT) than came the other way.
That compared with 21,600 in the January 2007 year and was the highest annual net outflow to Australia since the August 2001 year, when the figure was 29,100, SNZ said.
The net outflow to Australia peaked at 31,800 in the May 2001 year, with an earlier peak of 33,700 in the January 1989 year.
For January, the net PLT loss to Australia was 4100, up from a net outflow of 3500 people a year earlier.
The increase was mainly responsible for a fall in the overall excess of PLT arrivals over departures to 500 last month, compared to 1200 a year earlier.
Net inflows of 1200 came from Britain, with 300 each from India and South Africa last month, SNZ said.
Seasonally adjusted PLT arrivals matched departures in January, as had been the case in December.
For the year to January, overall net PLT migration was down to 4800 from 14,100 a year earlier, as the number of people leaving this country rose by 9000 or 13 per cent to 77,700.
Regarding short term travel, the number of visitors to this country from overseas in January was up 3 per cent from a year earlier to 253,500.
Seasonally adjusted visitor arrivals were unchanged between December and January, having fallen 1 per cent between November and December, SNZ said.
For the January year visitor arrivals were up 2 per cent to 2.47 million, with China overtaking Japan to become this country's fourth largest source of visitors.
The number from China was up 15,500 or 15 per cent to 122,000, while numbers from Japan were down 14,000 or 10 per cent to 119,500.
New Zealand residents left on 111,200 short term overseas trips last month, up 2200 from January 2007, while seasonally adjusted New Zealand resident departures were down 2 per cent between December and last month.
For the year, the 1.98 million resident departures was up 6 per cent from the January 2007 year.
- NZPA
