Commuting patterns in New Zealand

Almost half of New Zealand’s working population works in the main cities of the Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury regions, a new report by Statistics New Zealand shows. Commuting Patterns in New Zealand: 1996–2006 gives a statistical overview of commuting patterns in New Zealand between 1996 and 2006, focusing on the major centres of Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch.

The report shows the increasing dominance of employment within urban areas, with more people travelling to the largest cities. Between 1996 and 2006, the number of people working in urban areas grew by 21 percent, much higher than the overall population growth of 14 percent for the same period. Commuting zones for the main centres of the Auckland, Wellington, and Canterbury regions extend well beyond the metropolitan boundaries. More than 40 percent of the working population of Rodney district, for example, work in either North Shore or Auckland city.

The report also shows that most people in New Zealand live reasonably close to their work, with three-quarters of the population in 2006 living less than 10km from their workplace. Between 1996 and 2006, the distance people travelled to work increased slightly, with commuters to one of the Auckland cities travelling the furthest with a median distance of 6km. Services and sales workers were the most likely to live close to their workplace, with one-quarter of this group living within 2km of their workplace.

Between the 1996 and 2006 Censuses, an increasing proportion of people used a car to travel to work on census day. Commuters who lived outside the main cities but travelled to work there were more likely to use cars, except in Wellington where 25 percent of commuters used public transport. In contrast, only 4 percent of commuters to the four cities of Auckland and 1 percent of commuters to Christchurch city used public transport. Unless they had children, women were more likely to use public transport than men, while 75 percent of cyclists were men.

Commuting Patterns in New Zealand: 1996–2006 contains a range of information about commuting, and includes a series of maps showing the size and direction of commuter flows.

The report is available on the Statistics NZ website (http://www.stats.govt.nz/).