Nearly 60% of departing citizens are choosing Australia for better pay and stability
Nearly 72,000 New Zealanders left the country in the year ended June 2025, marking the largest exodus in the nation’s history as rising costs and limited opportunities push citizens overseas.
The net loss of 46,500 Kiwis came as just 25,400 returned home, according to Statistics New Zealand. While 60,200 non-citizens moved to the country, total population growth reached only 13,700 people – a historically weak figure for a nation of 5.3 million.
“Every year for the last 30 years, we’ve seen more New Zealand citizens leave New Zealand than arrive, but it’s really spiked in the last year,” professor Paul Spoonley, a sociologist at Massey University, said.
The current spike surpasses previous records, including 55,000 departures following the Global Financial Crisis.
Most concerning is the shift in who is leaving. Traditionally, New Zealanders in their 20s sought overseas experience, but now older, skilled workers are departing.
“We’ve got two additional factors that are deeply concerning,” Spoonley said. “The number of aged 30-plus New Zealanders leaving has risen, which suggests they’re people who have not only got a qualification but have been in the New Zealand labour market.”
Nearly 60% of departing citizens head to Australia, where salaries exceed New Zealand wages by NZ$20,000 to NZ$50,000. Last year, 35% of those leaving were not born in New Zealand, prompting foreign affairs minister Winston Peters to claim migrants use the country as a “stepping stone into Australia.”
The exodus occurs amid broader economic struggles. GDP fell 0.9% in the June 2025 quarter, unemployment rose to 5.2%, and food prices increased 5% in the year ended August 2025.
In Wellington, nearly 200 businesses closed over the past year following 10,000 public sector job cuts.
“I’m eating tuna out a can,” a tradie told News.com.au during his lunch break. “That's pretty sh** systems.”
Prime minister Christopher Luxon acknowledged the country was experiencing a “very difficult recovery” after the “disaster” of 2020.
Spoonley said improving conditions requires action. “The labour market needs to be more buoyant,” he said. “There need to be salary and wage increases, which begin to retain people rather than losing them to Australia.”
Economic growth minister Nicola Willis announced new skilled migrant residency pathways available from mid-2026 in an attempt to attract workers and stem the flow of departing Kiwis.
