International Migration 13 February

International migration statistics give the latest outcomes-based measure of migration, which includes estimates of migrants entering or leaving New Zealand.

Key facts

Annual migration
Annual migration by citizenship
Monthly migration
Migration with Australia - year ended June 2025
Latest revisions
Update to seasonal adjustment

Annual migration

Provisional estimates for the December 2025 year compared with the December 2024 year were:

• migrant arrivals: 134,000 (± 1,200), down 6 percent
• migrant departures: 119,800 (± 1,200), up 1 percent
• annual net migration: gain of 14,200 (± 1,600), compared with a gain of 23,800 (± 200).

Annual migrant arrivals peaked at 234,800 in the October 2023 year.

Annual migrant departures provisionally peaked at 122,300 in the May 2025 year.

Annual net migration peaked in the October 2023 year, with a gain of 135,500.

The long-term averages for December years (2002 to 2019) before COVID-19 were 121,300 migrant arrivals, 92,300 migrant departures, and a net migration gain of 29,000.

Migrants are people changing their country of residence, regardless of their country of citizenship or visa status. A 12-month threshold is used to classify migrants from non-migrants, aligned with international guidelines on measuring migration.

Annual migration by citizenship

The provisional net migration gain of 14,200 in the December 2025 year was made up of a net gain of 54,200 non-New Zealand citizens and a net migration loss of 40,000 New Zealand citizens.

Text alternative for diagram International migration estimates (provisional), year ended December 2025

For migrant arrivals in the December 2025 year, the largest groups were citizens of:

• New Zealand: 26,300 (± 500)
• India: 17,300 (± 200)
• China: 15,400 (± 300)
• Philippines: 10,400 (± 100)
• Sri Lanka: 5,600 (± 100)
• United Kingdom: 4,800 (± 100)
• Australia: 4,700 (± 300)
• United States: 4,100 (± 100).

For migrant departures in the December 2025 year, the largest groups were citizens of:

• New Zealand: 66,300 (± 900)
• China: 9,000 (± 300)
• India: 6,100 (± 200)
• United Kingdom: 4,600 (± 100)
• Australia: 3,700 (± 200)
• Philippines: 3,000 (± 100)
• United States: 2,700 (± 100).

Citizens of India, the Philippines, China, and Sri Lanka drove net migration gains in the December 2025 year. Country of citizenship is the nationality of passport used to arrive in or depart from New Zealand and is not necessarily the country of previous or next residence.

For non-New Zealand citizens, the net migration gain of 54,200 in the December 2025 year is compared with a net migration gain of 67,500 in the December 2024 year. The long-term average for December years (2002 to 2019) is a net migration gain of 48,100 a year.

For New Zealand citizens, the net migration loss of 40,000 in the December 2025 year is compared with a net migration loss of 43,700 in the December 2024 year. There was an average annual net migration loss of 26,600 in the December years 2002 to 2013 and an average annual net migration loss of 4,000 in the December years 2014 to 2019.

Monthly migration

Provisional estimates for December 2025 compared with December 2024 were:

• migrant arrivals: 12,700 (± 600), up 10 percent
• migrant departures: 11,300 (± 700), down 10 percent
• monthly net migration: gain of 1,500 (± 900), compared with a loss of 900 (± 200).

Provisional migration estimates are revised each month until they are finalised after 16 months.

Migration with Australia - year ended June 2025

There was a provisional net migration loss of 28,800 people to Australia in the June 2025 year. This was made up of 19,100 migrant arrivals from Australia to New Zealand, and 48,000 migrant departures from New Zealand to Australia.

Traditionally, there has been a net migration loss from New Zealand to Australia. This averaged about 30,000 a year from 2004 to 2013, and 3,000 a year from 2014 to 2019.

The provisional net migration loss to Australia in the June 2025 year was made up of a net loss of 28,200 New Zealand citizens, and a net loss of 600 non-New Zealand citizens. This compared with a net migration loss to Australia of 32,100 in the June 2024 year, made up of a net loss of 30,200 New Zealand citizens and a net loss of 1,900 non-New Zealand citizens.

In the June 2025 year, 61 percent of New Zealand-citizen migrant departures were to Australia.

Of New Zealand citizens who migrated to Australia in the June 2025 year, 35 percent were born outside New Zealand.

Net migration loss to Australia in 2024 (published in July 2025 and based on provisional data to December 2024) has more information.

These net migration estimates draw on two Infoshare series (select 'Tourism', then 'International Travel and Migration - ITM'):

• Estimated migrant arrivals by citizenship, visa type, and CLPR, 12/16-month rule (Quarterly) - this uses Stats NZ monthly estimates currently available to December 2025.
• Estimated migrant arrivals to Australia by CLPR, citizenship, and birthplace (Quarterly) - this uses Australian Bureau of Statistics quarterly estimates currently available to June 2025. Data for the September 2025 quarter will be available in late March 2026.

As the country of last previous residence (CLPR) of migrants arriving in New Zealand and Australia is not always known, an allowance for non-response to the CLPR question on both New Zealand and Australian arrival cards has been made.

Latest revisions

Migration estimates from September 2024 are provisional and subject to revision because it is not yet known whether some travellers are migrants or non-migrants.

Why migration estimates change has more information.

From August 2024 onwards, starting with the release of June 2024 estimates, a new training period was implemented for the international migration model.

Adjusting the training window for the international migration model (published 6 August 2024) and International migration: June 2024 (published 13 August 2024) have more information on the change of training period.

We encourage customers to make their own judgement on whether to use provisional migration estimates for the latest months, which have higher uncertainty, or provisional migration estimates for older months, which have lower uncertainty. Annual arrival and departure estimates are subject to notably less revision at 5 to 6 months after the reference period.

Comparison of provisional and final migration estimates: August 2017 to December 2025 contains a history of published migration estimates and revisions.

This month, revisions to the preceding month November 2025 were:

• migrant arrivals up 500 (4 percent). The average revision size to the preceding month was 300 (2 percent), and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months (November 2024 to October 2025).
• migrant departures down 30 (less than 1 percent). The average revision size to the preceding month was 400 (4 percent), and revisions were generally upwards, over the previous 12 months.
• net migration up 500. The average revision size to the preceding month was 600, and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months.

Text alternative for graphs Estimated migration by direction, monthly, November 2018-December 2025

This month, revisions to the preceding year (ended November 2025) were:

• migrant arrivals up 200 (less than 1 percent). The average revision size to the preceding year was 2,300 (2 percent), and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months (year ended November 2024 to year ended October 2025).
• migrant departures down 900 (1 percent). The average revision size to the preceding year was 1,600 (1 percent), with half of revisions upwards and half downwards, over the previous 12 months.
• net migration up 1,100. The average revision size to the preceding year was 2,800, and revisions were generally downwards, over the previous 12 months.

Update to seasonal adjustment

With the release of August 2023 data in October 2023, we resumed publication of seasonally adjusted and trend series for international migration. This followed a long interruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This resumption was possible after we developed a methodology to bridge the period interrupted by COVID-19-related travel and border restrictions. Methodology for bridging seasonally adjusted international travel and migration series impacted by COVID-19 (published 4 October 2023) has more detailed information on how the bridges were created.

In the methodology paper we committed to an annual review of the bridging series.

International migration: September 2024 (published 13 November 2024) has more information on the first review and update to the bridging series.

Following a review in late 2025, we have changed the end point of the synthetic bridge (known as T1) from January 2023 to December 2022.

In the period following the bridge (known as period C in the original methodology paper), this change resulted in a small reduction in outliers in seasonally adjusted series, and smoother, more stable trends. Period C is now from December 2022 for monthly series and remains from the March 2023 quarter for quarterly series.

The graphs below show the effect of the change to seasonally adjusted and trend series for monthly migrant arrivals and migrant departures. Migration estimates are for the December 2025 reference period as published on 13 February 2026.