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Population and geography

New Zealand is made up of two main islands, the North Island and South Island, plus other smaller islands. It's roughly the same size geographically as Great Britain, but with a population of 4.02 million*, there are plenty of wide open spaces.

There are five main urban concentrations of population in New Zealand. The largest, the Auckland region, has 1.3 million people which represents 32 percent of New Zealand’s population. The region is made up of four cities - Auckland City, (pop 404,658), Manukau City (pop. 328,968), North Shore City (pop. 205,608) and Waitakere City (pop.186,444).

The next largest regions after Auckland are the Canterbury region with 521,832 (Christchurch City pop.348,435), the Wellington region with 448,959 people (capital city Wellington pop.179,466), the Waikato region with 382,716 people (Hamilton city pop.129249), and the Otago region with 193,800 people (Dunedin City pop. 118,683).

New Zealand is best known around the world for its stunning scenery. The North Island is characterised by great beaches, farmland, lakes and geothermal activity, while the Southern Alps in the South Island provide a backdrop of snowy mountains, glaciers and fjords. Queenstown in the South Island is the best known centre for adventure sports such as bungy jumping, white water rafting, climbing and jet boating.

The population is made up of roughly 68 percent European, 14 percent New Zealand Māori, 9 percent Asian and 7 percent Pasifika ethnicities. English is the main language, although Māori is also recognised as an official language.

The climate varies considerably throughout the country. Summer, which stretches from about November through to March, sees temperatures in the north averaging around 25 C (77 Fahrenheit). The mountains in the South Island tend to make the weather more extreme there, but on the whole, New Zealand gets around 2,000 hours of sunshine each year.

* The statistics quoted on this page come from the 2006 NZ census data and are the "usually residents population statistics" rather than the "census night population statistics." There were 115,332 overseas visitors in the country on census night.