Families and households in Aotearoa New Zealand presents key information about the make up of families and households in New Zealand using data from the 2023 Census.
Find out about:
- types of households
- people living alone
- types of families
- families with children
- extended families.
The information comes from the 2023 Census.
The infographic is available below as a downloadable PDF.
Text alternative for Families and households in Aotearoa New Zealand infographic
Families and households in Aotearoa New Zealand
2023 Census
Households
Definition: A household is either one person usually living alone, or two or more people usually residing together, in a private dwelling.
1,780,527 total households
14.9% more households since 2013
Average number of people in each household: 2.7
Types of households
One-family household: 1,156,659 | 67.7%
Two-family household: 62,322 | 3.6%
Three or more family household: 4,290 | 0.3%
Other multi-person household: 95,478 | 5.6%
One-person household: 389,352 | 22.8%
People living alone
People living alone as a percentage of that age group
2.5 percent of people aged 15-29 years
8.4 percent of people aged 30-64 years
25.3 percent of people aged 65 years and over
One person households across our regions*
Northland: 10.1%
Auckland: 6.2%
Waikato: 8.5%
Bay of Plenty: 8.7%
Gisborne: 8.7%
Hawke's Bay: 9.7%
Taranaki: 10.1%
Manawatū-Whanganui: 11.0%
Wellington: 9.2%
Tasman: 9.4%
Nelson: 11.2%
Marlborough: 10.7%
West Coast: 15.2%
Canterbury: 9.7%
Otago: 10.2%
Southland: 11.8%
Chatham Islands: 13.6%
* One-person households as a percentage of all households in each region
Families
Definition: A family is two or more people living in the same household who are either a couple, with or without children, or one parent and their children. A child in a family can be of any age.
1,294,503 total families
Average number of people in each family: 2.9
13.9% more families since 2013
Largest increase of families was in Canterbury: 19.1%
Types of families
Couple without children in 2013: 40.9%
Couple without children in 2023: 41.5%
Couple with children in 2013: 41.3%
Couple with children in 2023: 42.0%
One parent with children in 2013: 17.8%
One parent with children in 2023: 16.5%
Families with children
757,017 families include children.
That is 58.5% of all families.
569,253, or 75.2%, of families with children include dependent children
210,885, or 37.0%, of families with dependent children include a child aged under 5 years
1.3% fewer families with children aged under 5 years since 2013
261,543 or 34.5%, of families with children include adult* children
27.3% more families with adult children since 2013
* Children aged 15 years and over and employed full-time, or children aged 18 years and over.
Extended families
Definition: An extended family is a group of related people who usually live together either as a family with one or more other related people, or as two or more related families, with or without other related people.
127,947 total extended families
27.2% more extended families since 2013
9.9% of all families are in an extended family
Extended families as a proportion of all families within each region
Northland: 11.2%
Auckland: 13.2%
Waikato: 10.0%
Bay of Plenty: 10.3%
Gisborne: 14.9%
Hawke's Bay: 10.0%
Taranaki: 7.1%
Manawatū-Whanganui: 8.8%
Wellington: 8.6%
Tasman: 6.4%
Nelson: 6.1%
Marlborough: 5.9%
West Coast: 4.9%
Canterbury: 6.4%
Otago: 4.9%
Southland: 5.1%
Chatham Islands: 10.0%
Note: This infographic was developed to illustrate key results of the 2023 Census. All results for households have been calculated from households in occupied private dwellings. All results for families have been calculated from families in households in occupied private dwellings. This data uses fixed random rounding to protect confidentiality.
