Social and environmental factors move people

For people who have moved in the past two years, social (including living with others, living closer to others)and environmental reasons (including proximity to services and facilities) were the main reasons for movingto their current home, says a new survey released by Statistics New Zealand today.

Environmental reasons were most frequently the main reason for not moving – 27 percent of those who didnot move gave an environmental reason. In particular, non-movers were satisfied with theavailability/proximity of services (7 percent), satisfied with their suburb, town, city or region (6 percent), or satisfied with their current lifestyle or quality of life (4 percent).These results come from the first nationwide Survey of Dynamics and Motivations for Migration in NewZealand, undertaken by Statistics NZ in the March 2007 quarter.

The survey investigates what motivatespeople to move from one house to another, from one area to another, or to and from New Zealand, andwhat motivates people to stay where they are.

The survey also provides insights into the demographiccharacteristics of movers and non-movers, as well as satisfaction ratings for living conditions, andinformation on people's future intentions to move.

Those who moved within New Zealand are generally younger than those who did not move in the previoustwo years – about one third (33 percent) were aged between 20 and 29 years.

The most common reasons for moving to New Zealand in the last two years were social ones, includingliving closer to others or with others (33 percent).Overall, 86 percent of all movers (within New Zealand and from overseas) rated their living conditions asbetter or much better than before they moved.

Among non-movers, 94 percent were satisfied or verysatisfied with their overall living conditions compared with two years ago.

Geoff Bascand

Government Statistician