Card use tells tale of exodus

Photo / Dean Purcell

The exodus of Christchurch residents after the deadly February earthquake has been mapped out in detail for the first time.

Electronic payment figures released by Paymark show that one in seven Christchurch people left town following the devastating February 22 earthquake.

Paymark said 393,400 eftpos and credit cards were normally used in the city.

But in the two weeks immediately after the earthquake, 56,300 were used in other parts of the country.

The largest chunk - 10,500 - were used in Auckland and Northland. Another 10,300 were used in other parts of Canterbury, 7300 in Otago, and 4000 in South Canterbury.

The population of Christchurch as at June 2010 was 376,700 people.

Paymark did not hold personal details about cardholders, and it had to be remembered that some people had more than one card, head of sales and marketing Paul Whiston said.

But card usage gave a good indication of where people had gone in the traumatic days following the tragedy. "Proportionally you could say it's a good representation of that sort of movement."

The numbers had fallen back after the initial exodus but had then increased again, he said.

By the middle of April, 30,000 Christchurch cards were still being used elsewhere. At the beginning of this month that number had risen to 34,700.

The movement meant money had gone out of the local economy, Whiston said.

"So even if businesses are in recovery mode, the people haven't come back yet. I think that's the insightful thing."

Westpac economist Dominick Stephens said the number of permanent departures was probably not as great as the statistics indicated.

NZ Post had said about 2 per cent of Christchurch people had redirected their mail to outside the city, and Statistics New Zealand figures showed just 7 per cent of the city's schoolchildren had re-enrolled elsewhere.

"So I'd suggest the number that has relocated permanently is somewhere between that two and seven per cent," he said.