It's sometimes called the mainland and is a third bigger, but the South Island is home to fewer than one in four Kiwis, new figures reveal.
According to new data released by Statistics New Zealand, more than three quarters of New Zealanders live in the upper North Island.
At June 30 this year, the North Island was home to 77 per cent of the population, compared to 23 per cent on the South Island.
That equates to about 3.67 million people in the north and 1.1 million in the south.
Stats NZ calculated New Zealand's median centre of population dividing the country north and south of a single point, which has moved north 280km since 1921.