Economy
Nelson Added 708 Income Earners in 2024. Its Biggest Jump in 20 Years
Nelson's count of people with taxable income fell every single year from 2010 to 2021. The most recent figures, from 2024, show it rising again, and rising faster than any year since 2004. Here is what that turnaround actually looks like on the ground.
The Top of the South Lost 3,400 Households in a Year. That's a First
Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough and the West Coast counted 65,000 households in 2021, the most on record. The latest Stats NZ figure is 60,800, and the single-year fall behind it is the biggest in 28 years of data.
The Care Workforce Grew More in 2024 Than in Any Year This Century
New Zealand added 14,538 people whose main income comes from health care and social assistance in a single year, the biggest jump in a 24-year Stats NZ series. The sector that looks after everyone else is now growing faster than at any point since 2000.
A Million More Kiwis Draw a Wage Than in 2000. Half Since 2014
Wellington City Council just cut 47 jobs. Zoom out and the national wage-earner count has only gone backwards twice in 24 years. The catch: what that head count can't tell you about your pay packet.
Fewer Family Homes Have an Extra Adult In Them Than Any Year Since 2008
Stats NZ counts households made up of a couple, their dependent kids, and at least one other person. That number has fallen to 28,600 nationally, the lowest since 2008 and down 10,400 from the 2014 peak. Here's why a household count is really a story about who can afford to move out.
88,644 More Kiwis Got a Wage Last Year. That's a Record Workforce.
The most recent tax data shows 2,810,745 people earned wages or salaries in 2024, the highest ever recorded. Two shocks knocked this number backwards this century, and the recovery times tell you exactly how different 2008 and 2020 really were.
Retail Pay Now Supports a Record 254,724 Kiwis. The GFC Cost Nine Years
More New Zealanders rely on retail earnings as their main income than at any point since 2000. But the recovery from the global financial crisis took nine years, and retail has never grown as fast since.
Big Families Are Disappearing: Three-Plus-Kid Households Hit a 28-Year Low
When schools ask parents to keep sick kids home, the households with the most children absorb the most disruption. There are fewer of them than at any point since 1998: 74,900 couples raising three or more dependent children, down from 92,300 in 2019.
Fewer Kiwis Get a Student Allowance Now Than at Any Point Since 2000
In 2012, 117,339 people earned income from a student allowance. By 2024 that had fallen to 55,389, the lowest in the 24 years Stats NZ has tracked it. Half the support, in the space of a dozen years.
875,001 People Now Draw a Pension. In 2000 It Was Under Half a Million.
Stats NZ's taxable income data tracks 24 years of New Zealand superannuation recipients. Three quarters of all the growth has happened since 2011, and the year with the single biggest jump was 2020.
The Payslip Nobody Wants: 138,636 Kiwis Earned Income From Injury Last Year
The number of New Zealanders drawing taxable income from accident compensation has doubled since 2000 and risen eleven years straight. That's not a stat about ACC's balance sheet. It's a stat about wages replaced, hours lost, and households running on less.
New Zealand Just Passed 4 Million Taxpayers for the First Time
RNZ has been writing about pensioners' growing tax bill. Behind that story sits a number nobody marked: in 2024 the count of New Zealanders with a taxable income source hit 4,091,334, the biggest single-year jump in 24 years of records.
Your Pay Rose More in Five Years Than in the Century's First Twelve
Median earnings jumped $14,420 between 2019 and 2024, beating the total gain from 2000 to 2012. So why does everyone feel skint? The gap between those two numbers is the whole story of the last five years.