Indian population leapfrogs Chinese to become third-largest ethnicity in New Zealand

More than 290,000 individuals claimed Indian heritage in the 2023 Census. Photo: RNZ / ZIMING LI

Census data reveals the Indian population has leapfrogged the Chinese community to become the third-largest ethnic group in New Zealand.

A total of 292,092 people in the country identified as a member of the Indian community in the 2023 Census, an increase of 22 percent since 2018.

The New Zealand European ethnic group remained the largest, with a population of 3,099,858, followed by Māori with 887,493.

The Chinese population, now the fourth largest, had 279,039 people.

The country's Filipino community has also grown by nearly 50 percent since 2018, an increase of more than 35,000 people to total 108,297.

Among the most widely spoken languages, Census data showed that Punjabi recorded the fastest growth between 2018 and 2023, an increase of 45.1 percent.

Punjabi is spoken in India and Pakistan.

Hindi is the fourth most spoken language in the country, while Punjabi ranks ninth.

Other rapidly growing languages included Tagalog, spoken in the Philippines, an increase of 37.5 percent, and Afrikaans, up by 32.7 percent.

Auckland continued to be the most ethnically diverse region, with the country's largest city boasting a population of 1.66 million residents.

While half the population identified as European, the area had the highest proportion of people with Asian heritage at 31.3 percent, compared to 17.3 percent nationwide, and Pacific heritage at 16.6 percent, compared to 8.9 percent nationwide.

The Chinese community was the third-largest ethnic group in Auckland, after the New Zealand European and Māori populations.

The Indian community ranked fourth, followed by the Samoan ethnic group.

The Indian population in Auckland grew by 13 percent, rising from 154,824 in 2018 to 175,794 in 2023.

The Census also provided an insight into the number of people born overseas.

Among the country's resident population, 3.5 million individuals were born in New Zealand, while 1.4 million were born overseas.

Of those born overseas, individuals from England constituted 4.2 percent of the population, followed by China and India, each accounting for 2.9 percent.

Latest data also showed that about half of the growth in the Asian ethnic group came from Indian and Filipino ethnicities, which increased by 22.1 percent (52,899 people) and 49.1 percent (35,685 people) since 2018.