International Migration 14 September

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 July 2026 year compared with the July 2025 year were:

• migrant arrivals: 134,400 (± 1,400), up 5 percent
• migrant departures: 114,100 (± 1,200), down 4 percent
• annual net migration: gain of 20,300 (± 1,800), compared with a gain of 9,600 (± 200).

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

Annual migrant departures 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 July years (2002 to 2025) were 122,800 migrant arrivals, 91,700 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 20,300 in the July 2026 year was made up of a net gain of 58,700 non-New Zealand citizens and a net migration loss of 38,300 New Zealand citizens.

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

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

• New Zealand: 26,600 (± 500)
• China: 19,500 (± 400)
• India: 16,800 (± 300)
• Philippines: 10,800 (± 100)
• Australia: 4,800 (± 400)
• Sri Lanka: 4,500 (± 100)
• United States: 4,400 (± 100)
• United Kingdom: 4,200 (± 100).

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

• New Zealand: 65,000 (± 900)
• China: 7,400 (± 200)
• India: 5,300 (± 200)
• United Kingdom: 4,700 (± 100)
• Australia: 3,600 (± 200)
• Philippines: 2,700 (± 100)
• United States: 2,600 (± 100).

Citizens of China, India, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka drove net migration gains in the July 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 58,700 in the July 2026 year is compared with a net migration gain of 50,000 in the July 2025 year. The long-term average for July years (2002 to 2025) is a net migration gain of 50,400 a year.

For New Zealand citizens, the net migration loss of 38,300 in the July 2026 year is compared with a net migration loss of 40,400 in the July 2025 year. There was an average annual net migration loss of:

• 19,200 in the July years 2002 to 2025
• 26,600 in the July years 2002 to 2013
• 5,700 in the July years 2014 to 2019.

Monthly migration

Provisional estimates for July 2026 compared with July 2025 were:

• migrant arrivals: 13,900 (± 900), up 19 percent
• migrant departures: 8,700 (± 700), down 7 percent
• monthly net migration: gain of 5,200 (± 1,100), compared with a gain of 2,300 (± 200).

Just under 2 in 5 migrant arrivals in July 2026 were on a student visa, coinciding with the start of the second academic semester.

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 28,400 people to Australia in the December 2025 year. This was made up of 19,100 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 was compared 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 July 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 April 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 July 2026 contains a history of published migration estimates and revisions.

This month, revisions to the preceding month (June 2026) were:

• migrant arrivals up 600 (5 percent). The average revision size to the preceding month was 200 (2 percent), and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months (June 2025 to May 2026).
• migrant departures down 200 (2 percent). The average revision size to the preceding month was 300 (3 percent), and revisions were generally upwards, over the previous 12 months.
• net migration up 700. 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-July 2026

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

• migrant arrivals up 1,600 (1 percent). The average revision size to the preceding year was 1,800 (1 percent), and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months (year ended June 2025 to year ended May 2026).
• migrant departures up 1,700 (2 percent). The average revision size to the preceding year was 1,500 (1 percent), with half of revisions upwards and half downwards, over the previous 12 months.
• net migration down 100. 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.

Provisional migration estimates

Comparisons between the July 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 July 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 July 2026

Diagram shows outcomes-based (provisional) estimates of migration, by citizenship (New Zealand or non-New Zealand) for the year ended July 2026. Overall, net migration is 20,300, made up of a net loss of 38,300 New Zealand citizens (based on 26,600 migrant arrivals, a 7 percent increase on the year ended July 2025, and 65,000 migrant departures, a 0 percent change) and a net gain of 58,700 non-New Zealand citizens (based on 107,800 migrant arrivals, a 5 percent increase on the year ended July 2025, and 49,100 migrant departures, a 7 percent decrease). Estimates are provisional as of 14 September 2026. Source: Stats NZ.

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

Graphs show monthly revisions to provisional migrant arrivals, migrant departures, and net migration for each month from November 2018 to July 2026. The data is shown in three separate line graphs arranged vertically, with migrant arrivals (top), 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.

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].

Technical enquiries

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

ISSN 2624-2702

Next release

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