Number of households to increase

A forecast decrease in the size of the average household will lead to more households nationwide by 2031, Statistics New Zealand says.

New research released today showed all 16 regional council areas would have more households in 2031 than in 2006, but the population of three of those areas - Gisborne, West Coast and Southland - would be smaller.

"This reflects an increasing proportion of one-person households and a decrease in the average size of family households," Statistics New Zealand population statistics manager Bridget Hamilton-Seymour said.

"These trends are driven mainly by the general ageing of the population."

Ms Hamilton-Seymour said the average family size was also expected to decrease, largely because of an increase in the number of two-person families and a decrease in the number of two-parent families.

Two-person, or couple-without-children, families were expected to grow faster than any other type of family over the next 25 years.

"If recent trends continue, couple-without-children families will overtake the number of two-parent families by 2011 as baby boomers increasingly become empty nesters," Ms Hamilton-Seymour said.

The number of households in Auckland was expected to increase from 466,000 to 723,000, making up 35 per cent of all households nationwide.

- NZPA