Foreign Minister Murray McCully has taken Shane Jones, David Shearer and Winston Peters with him for his trip to the Cook Islands, where he is holding talks.

A new motorway interchange north of Auckland opens on Wednesday, providing direct access for 10,000 Millwater residents.

The Asian rate reached 62 per 1000 women aged 15 to 44 in 2012, ahead of the European and other group on 57.

Prime Minister John Key has announced a suite of new schools which will be funded in next month's budget, catering for 4000 extra students.

Greater interaction with Asians, public cultural celebrations and media reports have made Kiwis feel warmer towards Asian people, a study has found.

Population growth, boosted by a record net migration gain, explains about half of the strong economic growth recorded last year.

Migrants are once again setting their sights on New Zealand, a new report reveals.

'Time to get a weedeater through here, I reckon," I said to Roscoe Webb, as I gazed across the expanse of waist-high weeds threatening to choke the old headstones at Waikumete Cemetery.

China's Environment Minister has promised to confront an environmental challenge "unprecedented in human history" after an online film exposing his country's pollution crisis went viral with more than 100 million hits in two days.

The allure of the lucky country is fading, as fewer Kiwis leave for Australia and more return - a brain gain forecast to continue this year.

Building height restrictions and NIMBY attitudes in inner Auckland are standing in the way of an response to Auckland's housing shortage, the Reserve Bank governor says.

All regions of New Zealand are expected to see an increase in population over the next 13 years, Statistics New Zealand says.

Babies are going out of fashion again as Kiwi women increasingly put work and study ahead of childbearing.

New Zealand, with a population increase of 500,000 in the past decade, is growing faster than Australia and China a new "snapshot" into Kiwi life shows.

Migration figures and the 2013 Census data clearly show that NZ's population is undergoing a significant change.

The net inflow of migrants slowed in December, but it remains strong and economists say it is too soon to conclude it has peaked.

Auckland's elderly, many on fixed incomes, are struggling to pay rates to meet the rising costs of the Super City.

Auckland is a great place - but it can be even better. In the second of our five-part Future Auckland series we aim to stimulate debate. Teuila Fuatai reports.

So far, a good number of Chinese families have been less than enthusiastic about the partial relaxation of the one-child policy. Why?

'Je suis Aotearoa." It has a certain piquant charm and would get a great deal of public attention if it was chosen as the branding to unite New Zealanders of all hues, nationalities, races and....

A new study has found that two-thirds of children in private rental housing in Auckland and the Waikato move house within their first two years.

Even the most silver-tongued estate agent would struggle to wax lyrical over 5 Dongluoquan Hutong.

New Zealand's population is tipped to age at a faster rate than our Australian neighbours.

Auckland's housing crisis will not be solved even if the Government's ambitious forecasts for residential construction are achieved, official documents show.

On his 60th birthday Woody Allen is supposed to have joked that "practically a third of my life is over". Optimistic maybe, but illustrative - as Patrick Nolan explains.

Asian youngsters are now more likely to suffer overcrowding and poverty-related illnesses than European children, a report has found.