Household growth to exceed population growth

The number of households in New Zealand is projected to increase by an average of 1.2 percent a year between 2006 and 2031, exceeding projected population growth of 0.8 percent a year, Statistics New Zealand said today. The growth in the number of families will also exceed the projected population growth but to a lesser extent, at an average of 0.9 percent a year.

"The faster growth in the number of families and households is due to the ageing of New Zealand's population, leading to an increasing proportion of couple-without-children families and one-person households," Population Statistics manager Bridget Hamilton-Seymour said. These figures are from mid-range series 5B, one of six different series from the updated 2006-base national family and household projections. The projections indicate the future number and type of families and households in New Zealand.

The number of families is projected to increase from an estimated 1.17 million in 2006 to 1.46 million in 2031. Couple-without-children families will account for the majority of this growth, up from 468,000 in 2006 to 721,000 in 2031.

The increasing prevalence of couple-without-children families is mainly due to the large number of people born during the 1950s to early 1970s reaching older ages, where they are most likely to live as a partner in this family type. Most of these couples will have had children who have left the parental home. Couple-without-children families are projected to overtake two-parent families to become the most common family type by 2011.

The number of households is projected to increase from 1.55 million in 2006 to 2.09 million in 2031. Households containing just one or two people are projected to account for nearly all of this growth.