New Zealand is witnessing a mass migration of its citizens leaving, with many heading to Australia, according to data by Stats NZ’s provisional international migration. It showed that there were 130,600 departures from April 2023 year on year, which is the highest on record for an annual timeframe.

Of those, almost 81,200 were New Zealand citizens – a 41% increase since last year and an increase from the previous record of 72,400 departures in 2012.

In total, there was an annual net migration gain of 98,500, as opposed to the 154,900 non-New Zealand citizens who entered, with the largest group being from India, followed by the Philippines and China.

Stats NZ also published provisional data on migration to Australia, which revealed that in the year to September 2023, 53% of NZ citizen departures headed to Australia.

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New Zealanders, especially young professionals and graduates, credited their leaving the country to high living costs and job shortages, given that it is also seen as a rite of passage for a lot of young New Zealanders to leave after graduating school or higher education.

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New Zealand's Brain Drain

Tehseen Islam, Stats NZ’s population indicators manager, told The Guardian, “Historically, changes in migration are typically due to a combination of factors – those include the relative economic and labor market conditions between New Zealand and the rest of the world.”

Meanwhile, Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen noted the two main factors driving the migration.

“There will be younger Kiwis going overseas for an overseas experience, or a delayed overseas experience, because there have been heavy disruptions over the last few years on that front,” he said, adding that the numbers show how much people and families are looking for opportunities and moving permanently. 

Australian employers have frequently attempted to recruit New Zealand workers with offers of higher pay and better working conditions.

Olsen explains that it has become harder to convince people to return to NZ if housing affordability and job prospects continue to deteriorate, calling this ‘brain drain’ a problem for society as the population ages.

“We need to have as many young people as we can who are still part of the economy … who are being innovative and bringing their new thinking to the game so we can be more productive,” he warned, stating, “If we are losing our young talent and we’re not able to attract them back it makes all of [that] so much harder.”

Last year, New Zealander Prime Minister Chris Hipkins promised during his appointment to focus government reform on the "global pandemic of inflation" while the Labour Party announced it would focus on the rising costs.

The prices of food went up 11.3% year-on-year back in December 2022, which was considered the biggest jump in more than three decades. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand's economy had not contracted since 2010.