May 31, 2024
Census shows future Māori
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A Māori demographer says Census 2023 raises questions about whether policy-makers are making wise decisions about the future of Aotearoa.
The Census found 978,246 of Aotearoa New Zealand’s population, or almost one in five are Māori, and for those under 25, it’s one in three.
Tahu Kukutai from Waikato University’s Te Ngira Institute for Population Research says that’s a magnificent story of resilience and recovery after the Māori population dropped to a historic low of less than 50,000 in the 1896 census.
She says the Māori population is young, its fertility is higher, and that means a lot of opportunity for tamariki and rangatahi, as long as policymakers allocate resources based on demographic reality.
“My answer to that would be kao. If they were, they would be taking stock of the opportunity presented by our Māori demography and making wiser decisions about how they invest in our young people because they are our future workforce. This is not just about Māori. This is about Aotearoa,” Professor Kukutai says.