National dwelling and household estimates are used for many purposes including planning, policy formation, business decisions, and as 'bottom lines' in the calculation of market coverage rates.
Key facts
At 31 December 2025, the estimated number of:
- private dwellings is 2,141,200
- households is 2,057,500.
Upcoming revision
We will revise the private dwelling estimates from March 2018 to December 2025 in the March 2026 quarter release on 7 April 2026. This is to correct an error in the 2023 Census base where dwellings under construction were incorrectly included. This error overstated the number of dwellings by about 27,000 (1.3 percent). As a result, the private dwelling estimates for March 2018 to December 2025 will be revised down.
Minor changes to the tenure proportions, and to the weighting factor applied to building consents, will also be incorporated.
The current estimates, however, remain a suitable indication of quarterly change and the tenure distribution of private dwellings.
The household estimates by tenure from the March 2018 quarter onwards will be updated in the 7 April 2026 release, to incorporate the minor change to tenure proportions derived from the corrected 2023 Census base. The household estimates remain on a 2018 Census base and will not be rebased until late 2026.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Access data in Infoshare
Use Infoshare for quarterly dwelling and household estimates data:
Subject category: Population
Group: Demography dwelling and household estimates - DDE
There are six series for this data - as at quarter ended, mean quarter ended, and mean year ended, for both dwellings and households. Choose the series you wish to view, and then select the variables required (for the latest data, choose the top quarter shown). Tables can be downloaded/saved by choosing the relevant option under the 'Save table' drop-down box.
Definitions and metadata
Dwelling and household estimates - DataInfo+ gives information about dwelling and household estimates including information on the limitations of estimates.
Estimated private dwellings and households - DataInfo+ gives the general methodology used to produce New Zealand's private dwellings and household statistics, and related metadata.
Dwelling concepts - DataInfo+ provides definitions of terms used in this release.
Household concepts - DataInfo+ provides definitions of terms used in this release.
Population concepts - DataInfo+ provides definitions of terms used in this release.
Technical enquiries
Molly Jenkins
[email protected]
04 931 4600
ISSN 2382-0950
Next release
Dwelling and household estimates: March 2026 quarter will be released on 7 April 2026.
