Households tipped to get smaller as families change

New Zealand will have more than half a million extra households two decades from now but they will be smaller than today's, Statistics New Zealand forecasts.

The 535,000 extra households by 2031 will take the total to 2.09 million.

But the average household size will decrease from 2.6 people in 2006 to 2.4 people in 2031, the projection shows.

The average size of families will also decrease, as a result of the increase in the number of "couple without children" families and the decrease in the number of two-parent families, the figures released yesterday show.

Statistics New Zealand defines a household as one or more people living together in a private dwelling.

It predicts the population will get steadily greyer - the number of people aged 50 and over will increase 63 per cent in the 25-year period from 2006, compared to only 5 per cent for those under 50.

The figures are a continuation of trends demographers have recorded over the past 25 years, said senior demographer Kim Dunstan.

"It's driven by our ageing population. One of the aspects of the household figure is as people age, their children move away, and they live in smaller groups or alone."

Sixty-three of the 73 NZ territorial authority areas were projected to have more households in 2031 than in 2006.

Queenstown-Lakes would have the largest growth over the 25-year period, at 2.6 per cent, followed by Manukau City and Selwyn District, at 2.1 per cent, Rodney, Waimakariri and Franklin districts at 1.9 per cent, the cities of Tauranga and Waitakere at 1.8 per cent and Auckland City, at 1.8 per cent.

- NZPA