KEY POINTS:
More than 400,000 people identify themselves as ethnic "New Zealanders" and the number of New Zealand Europeans has fallen by almost half a million, census figures show.
But Statistics New Zealand says the five-fold increase in those calling themselves New Zealanders in this year's census does not confuse the snapshot of New Zealand's multi-racial make-up.
The number of "Europeans" was 80 per cent in the 2001 census; the figures issued yesterday showed it was now 67 per cent.
Statistics New Zealand social conditions manager Paul Brown said that didn't equate to fewer white faces on New Zealand streets.
Most of the 11 per cent of people who wrote down "New Zealander" as their ethnic group would have been classed as Europeans in the previous census, he said.
He denied that the inclusion of "New Zealander" as an official group clouded the country's true ethnic make-up. "If anything, it doesn't tell us less, but more, in terms of the way we define ethnicity and seeing the significant emerging groups." He said people answered the question of ethnicity as they saw fit, and it was Statistic NZ's job to recognise patterns.
Professor Paul Spoonley, Massey University regional director of humanities and social sciences, said the statistics have become "meaningless", as they give no indication of the ethnicity of the 400,000 who have answered 'New Zealander'. Not knowing the ethnicity of those 400,000 people also leaves question marks over the size of the other ethnic groups identified in the census, he said.
Other figures confirmed the changing face of a multi-cultural country, as migration in the past five years played a prominent role in population growth.
Those who identified with an ethnic group from Asia remained the fastest growing group in the country.
In the Auckland region, where a population growth rate of 12.4 per cent topped the rest of the country, Asian people made up 17 per cent of the population - out-numbering Pacific people (14 per cent) for the first time.
One in four people in Auckland city is Asian.
Other findings from the census, held on March 7, include:
* New Zealand's population is 4.03 million, a 7.8 per cent increase on 2001.
* Ethnic groups included European (67.6 per cent), Maori (14.6), New Zealander (11.1), Asian (9.2) and Pacific Islander (6.9).
* The proportion of people born overseas increased to 23 per cent. Almost as many were born in Asia as in the United Kingdom or Ireland.
* Seventy-six per cent of New Zealanders live in the North Island, and 32 per cent are in Auckland.
* Forty per cent of people aged 15 and over had a post-school qualification.
* The country's median age is 36.
* The median income is $24,400.
Statistics New Zealand principal demographer Mansoor Khawaja said the census results show New Zealanders were getting older, wealthier and more educated, but were marrying later, and having smaller families later in life.
Seventy-five per cent of households had access to cellphones, and 60 per cent to the internet, up from 37 per cent in 2001. Women aged 25-39 still greatly outnumbered men, but the gap was closing.
