Households continue to drive energy demand

In 2006, households accounted for nearly 31 percent of New Zealand’s total energy demand, as stated by areport released by Statistics New Zealand today.

According to Energy and the Economy: 1997–2006, thisproportion makes households the largest consumers of energy.

Most of the energy used by householdsduring this period was in the form of petrol for private motor vehicles (56 percent).

The second largestenergy consumer was the transport and storage industry, which accounted for 25 percent of total energydemand.

The report, Energy and the Economy: 1997–2006, reviews the energy used by households, governmentand industry for the period 1997 to 2006 and the links to economic activity.

From 1997 to 2006, New Zealand’s total energy demand increased by 21 percent, while economic activity,as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), increased by 33 percent.

These results suggest that thegrowth of New Zealand’s economy is becoming less reliant on energy use.

The report Energy and the Economy: 1997–2006 and associated tables are available on the Statistics NewZealand website (http://www.stats.govt.nz/).

This report is part of an environmental series measuring thereliance of our economy on natural resources