DIASPORA MINISTRY
New Zealand's Growing Mission Field
The ethnic
make-up of New Zealand is rapidly changing. It's exciting to
hear so many different languages being spoken in the streets.
There's a whole new mission field growing on our doorstep and
it's providing new challenges for OMF in New Zealand.
We have compiled some statistics on the Asian population taken
from the 2006 Census (Statistics New Zealand). Projections
show continued steady growth, and show that we must begin to
seriously
strategise for outreach.
New zealand's increasing ethnic diversity - 2006 census
Ethnic
groups in New Zealand (2006 Census)
- New Zealand's ethnic make-up
has continued to change according to 2006 Census
results.
- Of the major ethnic groups in NZ,
the Asian ethnic group grew the fastest between 2001
and 2006, increasing
from 238,176
people in 2001 to reach 354,552 people in 2006
(an increase of almost
50 percent).
Asian
- The Asian ethnic group was New Zealand's
fourth largest major ethnic group totalling 354,552
people (9.2 percent) in 2006.
- Two-thirds of people (66.1 percent or 234,222
people) who identified with one or more Asian ethnic
group(s) usually lived in the
Auckland Region.
- In the five years from 2001-2006, the Chinese
population in NZ has increased by over 40%. With the
number of Koreans
increasing
61.8%, Filipino 52.7%, Japanese 18.8% and Cambodian
31.3%.
- New Zealand's changing ethnic composition
and the impact of migration within the five years between
2001 and 2006
was reflected
in
the increasing diversity of languages spoken.
Between 2001 and 2006, the number of people able to speak Northern
Chinese
(Mandarin)
increased from 26,514 to 41,391and the number
of people able to speak Korean increased from 15,873 to 26,967.
Christian Religion
- In the 2006 Census, just over 2 million people,
or 55.6 percent of those answering the religious affiliation
question, affiliated
with a Christian religion. This compares with the 2001 Census,
when 60.6 percent of people affiliated with a Christian religion.
Other
Religions
- In contrast with the small decrease
in people affiliating with
Christian religions between 2001 and 2006, there was
an increase in people affiliating with non-Christian
religions.
- The number of people indicating an affiliation
with Hinduism increased by 61.8% from 39,798 in 2001
to 64,392 in 2006, with
Islam up 52.6% from 23,631 in 2001 to 36,072 in 2006.
- The increases in people affiliating
with these non-Christian religions is mainly attributed
to migrants, particularly
from Asia.
All statistics thanks
to Statistics New Zealand (www.stats.govt.nz)
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