KEY POINTS:
The latest population trend is good news for eligible bachelorettes: the man drought doesn't appear to be getting any worse.
The 2006 census figures show little change in the sex ratio - the number of men per 100 women - which remained steady from 2001 about 95 men to 100 women.
At the Population Association of NZ conference in Wellington yesterday, demography analyst Robert Didham warned that was unlikely to have an effect on the quality of available men.
He cited reports of women lamenting not a lack of men, but a lack of suitable men, and noted a similar sentiment in Alaska, where men greatly outnumber women. "Somebody had quipped that the odds are good, but the goods are odd," Mr Didham said.
The buck in the trend is the first sign of a reprieve from the male-female imbalance, which had been growing since 1970 when the proportion of men to women was about the same.
While the trend had abated, or perhaps stopped, the reality remained that there were more men than women in New Zealand, particularly in the mid-20s to 49 age bracket.
Statistics NZ demographer Denise McGregor said migration played a part, though the latest figures showed a "babe-bonanza" (more women than men entering New Zealand) rather than a "man-drought" (more men than women leaving New Zealand).
"Some of it is migration, some of it is men dying at different rates to women, and some of it is due to the fact that men are more under-counted than women in the Census," Ms McGregor said.
She said the reasons were also regional, from urban and rural push and pull factors, to matters such as Otorohanga having a huge prison population.
New Zealand's situation is not unique: the UK, Australia and Canada have similar sex ratios.
The odds
* Largest imbalances - men outnumber women
Chatham Islands 128 men to 100 women
Otorohanga 115:100
Southland 110:100
* Women outnumber men
Kapiti Coast 87:100
Tauranga 92:100
Horowhenua 92:100
* Auckland
North Shore, Waitakere, Aucklandand Manukau 97m:100w
* National average 95m:100w
