NZ inNumbers

People leaving NZ

Long-term migrant arrivals over 12 months were 134,434 (Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa; NZ in Numbers calculation, Year to Jul 2026).

Updated

Long-term migrant arrivals, departures and net migration over the 12 months ending in each month, the headline measure Stats NZ reports, from December 2001.

Estimated long-term migrant arrivals, departures and net migration each month from 2001, using Stats NZ's outcomes-based measure (people who stay in or out of New Zealand for 12 of the following 16 months).

Totals including recent months are provisional and will be revised. Monthly sums of rounded estimates may differ slightly from Stats NZ's published annual totals.

Net migration subtracts departures from arrivals. A positive net figure can sit alongside a large number leaving, because the arrivals are larger. The citizenship and visa breakdowns answer different questions about those movements.

Read the period beside each number before comparing it with another figure. A monthly observation, a quarterly result and a financial year cover different spans of time. The latest release can also revise earlier observations. The chart and downloads keep the published periods so you can check which figures are being compared. A change in arrivals and departures describes what happened during that period; it does not by itself explain why it happened or identify the effect of a government policy. Definitions and coverage matter as much as the size of a change.

Sources: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa; NZ in Numbers calculation; Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa. Last retrieved 10 October 2026.

Arrivals and departures, Migration: arrivals, departures and net (12-month totals): number, Year to Dec 2001 to Year to Jul 2026

Migrant arrivals, 12 monthsMigrant departures, 12 monthsNet migration, 12 months
Arrivals and departures. Migrant arrivals, 12 months, Year to Dec 2001 to Year to Jul 2026, latest 134,434. Migrant departures, 12 months, Year to Dec 2001 to Year to Jul 2026, latest 114,083. Net migration, 12 months, Year to Dec 2001 to Year to Jul 2026, latest 20,348.-100,0000100,000200,000300,0002001200620102014201820222026
Show the figures
PeriodMigrant arrivals, 12 months (number)Migrant departures, 12 months (number)Net migration, 12 months (number)
Year to Jul 2026134,434114,08320,348
Year to Jun 2026132,248114,76717,479
Year to May 2026131,337115,01116,325
Year to Apr 2026130,953115,63615,317
Year to Mar 2026129,786115,73614,051
Year to Feb 2026128,389115,84912,542
Year to Jan 2026128,661115,68412,980
Year to Dec 2025127,476116,00911,470
Year to Nov 2025127,324116,17911,148
Year to Oct 2025127,446116,51410,935
Year to Sep 2025127,310117,19810,114
Year to Aug 2025126,897117,6679,232
Year to Jul 2025127,847118,2569,593
Year to Jun 2025129,052118,87010,184
Year to May 2025130,395120,10910,287
Year to Apr 2025131,913120,14211,771
Year to Mar 2025134,183120,49313,690
Year to Feb 2025137,707120,29417,413
Year to Jan 2025139,444119,93719,507
Year to Dec 2024142,430118,68323,747
Full data: migration annual
Year to Jul 2026Migrant arrivals, 12 months 134,434Migrant departures, 12 months 114,083Net migration, 12 months 20,348

Long-term migrant arrivals, departures and net migration over the 12 months ending in each month, the headline measure Stats NZ reports, from December 2001.

Arrivals and departures. Migrant arrivals, 12 months: 134,434 in Year to Jul 2026. Migrant departures, 12 months: 114,083 in Year to Jul 2026. Net migration, 12 months: 20,348 in Year to Jul 2026.

Each measure retains its own definition and period. Lines break at changes in basis and missing periods. Choose a measure to see its note and readout.

Arrivals and departures: definitions

Migration: arrivals, departures and net (12-month totals)

Long-term migrant arrivals, departures and net migration over the 12 months ending in each month, the headline measure Stats NZ reports, from December 2001.

Migration: arrivals, departures and net

Estimated long-term migrant arrivals, departures and net migration each month from 2001, using Stats NZ's outcomes-based measure (people who stay in or out of New Zealand for 12 of the following 16 months).

Arrivals and departures: comparison limits

These affect how far the figures can be compared.

Migration: arrivals, departures and net (12-month totals)

  • Totals including recent months are provisional and will be revised.
  • Monthly sums of rounded estimates may differ slightly from Stats NZ's published annual totals.

Migration: arrivals, departures and net

  • Recent months are provisional and are revised for up to 16 months; provisional estimates carry standard errors.
  • Monthly figures are noisy; annual (12-month) totals are the usual headline.

Arrivals and departures by NZ government

The last published observation before each term began and ended. The current term uses the latest observation.Change since a government took office is not the same as its effect.

Prime ministersIn officeStartEndChange
ClarkDec 1999 to Nov 2008Not available119,862 (Year to Oct 2008)Not available
Key, EnglishNov 2008 to Oct 2017119,862 (Year to Oct 2008)141,569 (Year to Sep 2017)A rise of 21,707
Ardern, HipkinsOct 2017 to Nov 2023141,569 (Year to Sep 2017)232,882 (Year to Oct 2023)A rise of 91,313
LuxonNov 2023 to now232,882 (Year to Oct 2023)134,434 (Year to Jul 2026, latest)A fall of 98,448 so far
Compare governments on any measure

Arrivals and departures: data by period

The latest ten published periods for up to six series in each dataset. The downloads contain every observation.

Migration: arrivals, departures and net (12-month totals)

Long-term migrant arrivals, departures and net migration over the 12 months ending in each month, the headline measure Stats NZ reports, from December 2001.

PeriodMigrant arrivals, 12 monthsMigrant departures, 12 monthsNet migration, 12 months
Year to Jul 2026134,434114,08320,348
Year to Jun 2026132,248114,76717,479
Year to May 2026131,337115,01116,325
Year to Apr 2026130,953115,63615,317
Year to Mar 2026129,786115,73614,051
Year to Feb 2026128,389115,84912,542
Year to Jan 2026128,661115,68412,980
Year to Dec 2025127,476116,00911,470
Year to Nov 2025127,324116,17911,148
Year to Oct 2025127,446116,51410,935

Migration: arrivals, departures and net

Estimated long-term migrant arrivals, departures and net migration each month from 2001, using Stats NZ's outcomes-based measure (people who stay in or out of New Zealand for 12 of the following 16 months).

PeriodMigrant arrivalsMigrant departuresNet migration
Jul 202613,8938,7225,170
Jun 202611,2318,9002,331
May 20269,0869,593−507
Apr 20269,0829,03744
Mar 202611,0419,9501,090
Feb 202613,6109,4614,148
Jan 202612,69811,1641,534
Dec 202511,84712,399−552
Nov 202510,2459,603642
Oct 202510,5848,3122,273

Arrivals and departures: questions for your AI

Download the files, attach them in the assistant you use, then paste the prompt. Its answer is its own reading of the data.

  1. 1Download migration-annual.csv
  2. 2Attach it in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another assistant
  3. 3
    Paste this prompt

    The attached CSV is migration: arrivals, departures and net (12-month totals), from NZ in Numbers. Describe how each measure has changed, naming its unit and period. Treat changes in basis and missing periods as breaks. Do not infer causation from government terms. Read the limits before comparing. Supporting datasets: migration-annual, migration-totals.

Questions about arrivals and departures in NZ

Short answers with their definitions, sources and limits.

Related NZ data

These topics put arrivals and departures alongside other measures.

Arrivals and departures: sources

The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.

Calculated by NZ in Numbers from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, International migration: estimated migration by direction.

Organisation
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa; NZ in Numbers calculation, NZ in Numbers calculation
Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Calculated by NZ in Numbers from the source datasets listed; please also credit those sources.
Snapshot
SHA256
4c22b16cf4679ce28e13bee1843fe3b2cadd7f0a982e8963da58d9b4cb7bfb3e
Retrieved
10 October 2026
Formula
12-month total = sum of the monthly estimates for the 12 months ending in the month shown
Inputs
  • migration-totals, migration.arrivals. Source: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, International migration: estimated migration by direction. Content hash: a6365350af4de58f8a0dce51c9476e4e3b7115d2829afdefd7c8ea46d657f8ee.
  • migration-totals, migration.departures. Source: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, International migration: estimated migration by direction. Content hash: a6365350af4de58f8a0dce51c9476e4e3b7115d2829afdefd7c8ea46d657f8ee.
  • migration-totals, migration.net. Source: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, International migration: estimated migration by direction. Content hash: a6365350af4de58f8a0dce51c9476e4e3b7115d2829afdefd7c8ea46d657f8ee.

Arrivals and departures: sources

The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.

Organisation
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, International migration: estimated migration by direction
Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This work is based on Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Reuse limits
Photos, graphics and logos are excluded. Stats NZ logos and government emblems must not be used.
Snapshot
data/raw/statsnz-migration-totals/2026-10-10_26967e49f7bc.csv
SHA256
26967e49f7bc87a1b5febacc488605b04fdabba36c1e060397791deacd4217ea
Retrieved
10 October 2026