Population growth slowing

New Zealand's population growth is slowing and the number of teenagers falling, official figures show.

In 2004, the population grew by 44,800 (or 1.1 per cent) compared with 63,500 (1.6 per cent) the year before, Statistics New Zealand said.

The fall was due to a decrease in permanent and long-term migration.

The number of people coming to live in New Zealand exceeded departures by 15,100 in 2004 - 34 per cent of population growth - compared with 34,900 (55 per cent) in 2003.

There were 4,084,200 people living in New Zealand on December 31.

The population aged under 15 fell 0.2 per cent in 2004 to 882,600.

The number of people aged 65 and over grew by 17.3 per cent in the past decade to 491,600.

In the same period, the 90 years and above group increased by 66.2 per cent, and the 80 to 89 group grew 35.8 per cent.

The numbers of those aged 15 to 64 was 2,710,100 on December 31, a rise of 13.5 per cent on 1994.

- NZPA