- the population is getting older;
- the median age of the population is 38;
- males make up 48.7 per cent and females make up 51.3;
- women outnumber men in all age groups from 25-years onwards;
- females had a higher median age (38.9) compared with men (36.7);
- more than 73,000 people were aged 85 and over at the time of the census.
* Dwellings
- people aren't moving house as often, with an increase of residents staying put compared to 2006;
- the number of people who had not moved in the previous five years had increased by 41 per cent since 2006;
- the highest rate of home ownership was in the Tasman District;
- more people from Waikato moved to Auckland in the past five years than from other parts of the country;
- when Aucklanders move out of the area, they mostly move to Waikato, then Northland, then the Bay of Plenty;
- more people in Otago moved to Canterbury in the previous five years than from anywhere else;
- Cantabrians who moved out of the region in 2008 mostly moved to Auckland followed by Otago, then Wellington;
- one in 10 dwellings are unoccupied, with a 40 per cent increase of unoccupied homes in Canterbury.
* Cultural diversity
- Asian ethnic groups have almost doubled in size since 2001;
- Hindi is the forth most spoken language, behind English, Te Reo and Samoan;
- Hindi has bumped French of the number four position;
- there has been an increase of Philippine workers in Southland working on dairy farms;
- Maori makes up 14.9 per cent of the population;
- nearly 66,000 people identified themselves as New Zealander on the form, compared with nearly 430,000 in 2006 after a media campaign;
- Pacific peoples made up 7.4 per cent of the population;
- a quarter of the population were born overseas.
* Education
- almost four out of five adults have a formal qualification;
- the number of adults with a degree has increased by nearly 14 per cent on 2006;
- of those with degrees, 42.2 per cent were men and 57.8 per cent were women;
- one in five adults had a university degree or equivalent;
* Work
- the number of people aged over 65 who were still working had nearly doubled since 2001;
- more than 2 million adults are employed;
- unemployment increased since 2006 but was slightly lower than 2001;
- the unemployment rate for people aged between 15 and 24 was 18.4 per cent;
- women made up 60 per cent of those not in the labour force;
- health care and social assistance is now the most common industry, reflecting the aging population; and
- the biggest decline was workers in the manufacturing industry
* Income
- more than twice as many men as women have an income over $70,000;
- nearly 40 per cent of adults have an income of $20,000 or less;
- nearly 6 per cent have an income of more than $100,000;
- the median income was $28,500;
- men had a median income of $36,500;
- women's median income was $23,100;
- women's median income had increased since 2006 than men's;
- Wellington has the highest median income and Northland has the lowest.
* Families
- couples without children are almost as common as couples with children;
- one-parent families make up 17.8 per cent;
- nearly a quarter of all households are made up of one person;
- one-family households remain the most common type.
* Home ownership
- the rate of home ownership continues to fall;
- nearly 65 per cent of households owned their home or held it in a family trust compared with nearly 70 per cent in 2006;
- just over 56 per cent of home owners have a mortgage;
- just over 215,000 (nearly 15 per cent) homes were held in a family trust;
- there was an increase in people renting their properties.
* Maori
- nearly 600,000 people identified with the Maori ethnic group - or one in seven people;
- nearly 670,000 people were of Maori descent;
- a third of Maori are aged under 15-years-old;
- Ngapuhi remains the largest iwi, followed by Ngati Porou;
- the median age of Maori was 23.9;
- Northland has the highest proportion of maori aged over 65;
- nearly a quarter of all Maori live in the Auckland region;
- more than a fifth of Maori can hold a conversation in Te Reo;
- one in five Maori speak more than one language;
- there has been an increase of more than 56 per cent of Maori who earned a bachelor's degree or higher.
* Phone and internet access
- three quarters of households now have internet access;
- cellphone access had increased with 83.7 households with cellphones compared with 74.2 per cent in 2006;
- access to landlines had decreased by 6 per cent from 2006;
- this year, 14.6 per cent of households have access to faxes, down from 26 per cent in 2006;
- 1.6 per cent, or 24,135 households did not have access to a cellphone, a landline, the internet or a fax.