KEY POINTS:
More Maori have university degrees and jobs earning more money than in previous years, latest census figures show.
The number of Maori with bachelor degrees or higher almost doubled since 2001, from 13,347 to 23,070 in 2006, when the last census was taken.
More were working, as well -- 225,360 Maori had full- and part-time jobs, up 21.3 per cent since the last census.
The number of unemployed Maori dropped from 16.8 per cent last count to 11 per cent last year.
The most common job was labouring (21.2 per cent), followed by professional (14 per cent), technicians and trade workers (12.4 per cent) and managers (11.6 per cent).
Last year, the median annual income for Maori people over 15 years old was $20,900, 40 per cent more than the median $14,800 five years before. However, Maori still earned less than the median income for all New Zealanders, of $24,400.
The Maori population had increased 30 per cent from 15 years earlier, with population count growing 130,482 from 434,847 in 1991 to 565,329,
One in seven New Zealanders, or about 14.7 per cent, belonged to the ethnic group, with 52.8 per cent saying they were solely Maori.
Forty-two per cent identified as Maori and European, seven per cent Maori and Pasifika and one and a half per cent Maori and Asian.
One quarter of Maori census-returnees aged between 15 and 64 could hold a conversation in te reo Maori, though almost half of Maori over 65 could chat in the language.
Overall, 23.7 per cent of Maori spoke the indigenous language, 1128 more than in 2001.
The Ngapuhi iwi had the most people (122,211), followed by Ngati Porou (71,910), Ngati Kahungunu (59,946) and Ngai Tahu (49,185).
Maori party leader Pita Sharples welcomed the census' findings.
He pointed out how the figures disproved the 1846 prediction made by politician and surgeon Isaac Featherston, who infamously said, "All we can do is to smooth the pillow of the dying Maori race."
"That dying race is well and truly thriving... We have to see that for what it is -- awesome!," Dr Sharples said.
The statistics showed a remarkable regeneration in the Maori population, he said.
It also showed how Maori population was moving, he said. In 1956, nearly two-thirds of Maori lived in rural areas, compared to an 84 per cent urban population in 2006.
"I was really pleased to see that the number of people of Maori who do not know their whakapapa (descent) has decreased by 8.4 per cent -- so clearly it is becoming more and more positive to Be Maori; to think Maori; to Live Maori."
- NZPA
