International Migration 14 July

International migration statistics give the latest outcomes-based measure of migration, which includes estimates of migrants entering or leaving New Zealand.

Key facts

Annual migration
Annual migration by citizenship
Monthly migration
Migration with Australia – year ended December 2025
Latest revisions

Annual migration

Provisional estimates for the May 2026 year compared with the May 2025 year were:

• migrant arrivals: 130,700 (± 1,200), up 0.1 percent
• migrant departures: 111,900 (± 1,200), down 7 percent
• annual net migration: gain of 18,800 (± 1,600), compared with a gain of 10,600 (± 200).

Annual migrant arrivals peaked at 232,900 in the October 2023 year.

Annual migrant departures provisionally peaked at 120,500 in the March 2025 year.

Annual net migration peaked in the October 2023 year, with a gain of 133,700.

The long-term averages for May years (2002 to 2025) were 122,600 migrant arrivals, 91,400 migrant departures, and a net migration gain of 31,200.

Migrants are people changing their country of residence, regardless of their country of citizenship or visa status. A 12-month threshold is used to classify migrants from non-migrants, aligned with international guidelines on measuring migration.

Annual migration by citizenship

The provisional net migration gain of 18,800 in the May 2026 year was made up of a net gain of 55,600 non-New Zealand citizens and a net migration loss of 36,800 New Zealand citizens.

Text alternative for diagram International migration estimates (provisional), year ended May 2026

For migrant arrivals in the May 2026 year, the largest groups were citizens of:

• New Zealand: 26,200 (± 500)
• China: 17,300 (± 300)
• India: 16,400 (± 200)
• Philippines: 10,700 (± 100)
• Sri Lanka: 4,800 (± 100)
• Australia: 4,400 (± 400)
• United States: 4,300 (± 100)
• United Kingdom: 4,100 (± 100).

For migrant departures in the May 2026 year, the largest groups were citizens of:

• New Zealand: 63,000 (± 800)
• China: 7,800 (± 200)
• India: 5,300 (± 200)
• United Kingdom: 4,400 (± 100)
• Australia: 3,500 (± 200)
• Philippines: 2,800 (± 100)
• United States: 2,600 (± 100).

Citizens of India, China, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka drove net migration gains in the May 2026 year. Country of citizenship is the nationality of passport used to arrive in or depart from New Zealand and is not necessarily the country of previous or next residence.

For non-New Zealand citizens, the net migration gain of 55,600 in the May 2026 year compares with a net migration gain of 52,300 in the May 2025 year. The long-term average for May years (2002 to 2025) is a net migration gain of 50,400 a year.

For New Zealand citizens, the net migration loss of 36,800 in the May 2026 year compares with a net migration loss of 41,700 in the May 2025 year. There was an average annual net migration loss of 26,700 in the May years 2002 to 2013 and an average annual net migration loss of 6,200 in the May years 2014 to 2019.

Monthly migration

Provisional estimates for May 2026 compared with May 2025 were:

• migrant arrivals: 9,000 (± 600), up 3 percent
• migrant departures: 9,100 (± 600), down 10 percent
• monthly net migration: loss of 100 (± 800), compared with a loss of 1,400 (± 100).

Provisional migration estimates are revised each month until they are finalised after 16 months.

Migration with Australia – year ended December 2025

There was a provisional net migration loss of 28,500 people to Australia in the December 2025 year. This was made up of 19,000 migrant arrivals from Australia to New Zealand, and 47,500 migrant departures from New Zealand to Australia.

Traditionally, there has been a net migration loss from New Zealand to Australia. This averaged about 30,000 a year from 2004 to 2013, and 3,000 a year from 2014 to 2019.

The provisional net migration loss to Australia in the December 2025 year was made up of a net loss of 28,200 New Zealand citizens, and a net loss of 300 non-New Zealand citizens. This compares with a net migration loss to Australia of 31,100 in the December 2024 year, made up of a net loss of 29,300 New Zealand citizens and a net loss of 1,700 non-New Zealand citizens.

In the December 2025 year, 64 percent of New Zealand citizen migrant departures were to Australia.

Of New Zealand citizens who migrated to Australia in the December 2025 year, 35 percent were born outside New Zealand.

Net migration loss to Australia in 2025 (published in July 2026 and based on provisional data to December 2025) has more information.

These net migration estimates draw on two Infoshare series (select ‘Tourism’, then ‘International Travel and Migration – ITM’):

• Estimated migrant arrivals by citizenship, visa type, and CLPR, 12/16-month rule (Quarterly) – this uses Stats NZ monthly estimates currently available to May 2026.
• Estimated migrant arrivals to Australia by CLPR, citizenship, and birthplace (Quarterly) – this uses Australian Bureau of Statistics quarterly estimates currently available to December 2025. Data for the March 2026 quarter will be available in late September 2026.

As the country of last previous residence (CLPR) of migrants arriving in New Zealand and Australia is not always known, an allowance for non-response to the CLPR question on both New Zealand and Australian arrival cards has been made.

Latest revisions

Migration estimates from February 2025 are provisional and subject to revision because it is not yet known whether some travellers are migrants or non-migrants.

Why migration estimates change has more information.

From August 2024 onwards, starting with the release of June 2024 estimates, a new training period was implemented for the international migration model.

Adjusting the training window for the international migration model (published 6 August 2024) and International migration: June 2024 (published 13 August 2024) have more information on the change of training period.

We encourage customers to make their own judgement on whether to use provisional migration estimates for the latest months, which have higher uncertainty, or provisional migration estimates for older months, which have lower uncertainty. Annual arrival and departure estimates are subject to notably less revision at 5 to 6 months after the reference period.

Comparison of provisional and final migration estimates: August 2017 to May 2026 contains a history of published migration estimates and revisions.

This month, revisions to the preceding month April 2026 were:

• migrant arrivals down 200 (2 percent). The average revision size to the preceding month was 200 (1 percent), and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months (April 2025 to March 2026).
• migrant departures up 200 (3 percent). The average revision size to the preceding month was 300 (4 percent), and revisions were generally upwards, over the previous 12 months.
• net migration down 400. The average revision size to the preceding month was 400, and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months.

Text alternative for graphs Estimated migration by direction, monthly, November 2018-May 2026

This month, revisions to the preceding year (ended April 2026) were:

• migrant arrivals down 4,100 (3 percent). The average revision size to the preceding year was 1,900 (1 percent), and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months (year ended April 2025 to year ended March 2026).
• migrant departures up 1,200 (1 percent). The average revision size to the preceding year was 1,400 (1 percent), with half of revisions upwards and half downwards, over the previous 12 months.
• net migration down 5,300. The average revision size to the preceding year was 2,400, and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months.

More data

Use Infoshare to access time-series data for international travel and migration:

Subject category: Tourism
Group: International travel and migration – ITM

Definitions and metadata

International migration – DataInfo+ gives general methodology used to produce international travel and migration statistics.

International migration concepts – DataInfo+ gives definitions of terms used in this release.

Subnational short-term NZ-resident arrivals – DataInfo+ gives methodology for determining the New Zealand-location information in short-term New Zealand-resident arrival records.

Infoshare is being replaced by Aotearoa Data Explorer

Infoshare is being replaced by Aotearoa Data Explorer. Stay informed and get support with this change by joining our customer group at [email protected].

Provisional migration estimates

Comparisons between the May 2026 and 2025 months and years use the latest provisional estimates for each period.

The provisional estimates have 95 percent confidence intervals (±) beside them – the wider the interval, the greater the uncertainty about the estimate. However, these intervals reflect the model uncertainty, not the extent of future revisions to provisional data.

Migration estimates in more recent months have greater uncertainty and are therefore subject to larger revisions than estimates for earlier periods.

Provisional migration estimates are revised each month until they are finalised after 16 months.

Migration data transformation has more information about the migration estimates, including the 12/16-month rule and a monthly summary of the number of border movements, the number requiring modelling as migrants or non-migrants, and the history of revisions to migration estimates.

Comparison of provisional and final migration estimates: August 2017 to May 2026 also has more information.

Why migration estimates change

The outcomes-based measure of migration with provisional and final estimates is the official way we measure migration in New Zealand.

International migration uses new official measure has more information.

To classify a border crossing as a migrant movement, we need to observe up to 16 months of travel history, and it takes 17 months before final migration estimates are available, using the 12/16-month rule.

To produce timely results, we use a statistical model to produce provisional migration estimates. As new data becomes available each month, the provisional migration model has more information about the border crossings it is trying to estimate. This causes shifts in the estimated number of migrant arrivals and migrant departures, and thus changes in the net migration estimates.

Text alternative for diagram International migration estimates (provisional), year ended May 2026

Diagram shows outcomes-based (provisional) estimates of migration, by citizenship (New Zealand or non-New Zealand) for the year ended May 2026. Overall, net migration is 18,800, made up of a net loss of 36,800 NZ citizens (based on 26,200 migrant arrivals, a 6 percent increase on the year ended May 2025, and 63,000 migrant departures, a 5 percent decrease) and a net gain of 55,600 non-NZ citizens (based on 104,500 migrant arrivals, a 1 percent decrease on the year ended May 2025, and 48,900 migrant departures, a 9 percent decrease). Estimates are provisional as of 14 July 2026. Source: Stats NZ.

Text alternative for graphs Estimated migration by direction, monthly, November 2018-May 2026

Graphs show monthly revisions to provisional migrant arrivals, migrant departures, and net migration for each month from November 2018 to May 2026. The data is shown in three line graphs arranged one after the other vertically, starting with migrant arrivals (top), followed by migrant departures (middle), and net migration (bottom). The vertical axis shows estimated number of migrants. Months are labelled on the horizontal axis. Source: Stats NZ.

Technical enquiries

Travel, migration, and housing team
[email protected]
04 931 4600

ISSN 2624-2702

Next release

International migration: June 2026 will be released on 14 August 2026.