The number of migrants arriving in the country continues to climb.
Annual net migration reached 72,000 to the year ending May 2017, according to the latest Stats NZ figures.
Migrant arrivals numbered 130,400, while migrant departures totalled 58,400.
“The continued high level of net migration in the May 2017 year was driven by non-New Zealand citizens migrating to New Zealand,” population statistics senior manager Peter Dolan says.
“Of the 130,400 migrant arrivals, three out of four were non-New Zealand citizens.”
From the 98,300 non-New Zealand citizen arrivals, 12% were from China, 10% from the United Kingdom, and 10% from Australia.
Visa types contributing most to the migrant arrivals were work visas (44,500 – up 5500), NZ and Australian citizens (38,300 – up 2000), student visas (23,700 – down 4000) and residence visas (16,700 – up 1600)
