Growth in smaller households predicted

All 16 regions of New Zealand are projected to have more households in 2038 than in 2013, Statistics New Zealand said today. This is based on the ‘medium’ projection of the 2013-base subnational family and household projections. Most territory authority areas (TAs) will also have more households.

“These trends are driven mainly by the general ageing of our population.”

Average family size is projected to decline, largely because of an increase in the proportion of couple-without-children families (which contain two people) and a decrease in the proportion of two-parent families (which contain about four people, on average).

Couple-without-children families are projected to increase the fastest of the three broad family types over the next 25 years, for all regions and most TAs. Couple-without-children families will continue to be the most common family type, increasing their share of families from 41 percent to 45 percent, as baby boomers increasingly become ’empty nesters’.

The Auckland region is projected to account for about half of the national growth in the number of households between 2013 and 2038, increasing from 500,000 to 750,000. Over the same period, the region is projected to account for roughly 60 percent of New Zealand’s population growth. By 2038, 35 percent of all households in New Zealand will be in the Auckland region, up from 30 percent in 2013.

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