Indian New Zealanders
Indian New Zealanders are persons of Indian origin or descent, living in New Zealand. The term includes Indians born in New Zealand, as well as immigrants from India, Fiji, as well as other regions of Asia, parts of Africa such as South Africa as well as East Africa, and furthermore, from other parts of the world. The term Indian New Zealander applies to any New Zealanders with one or both parents of Indian heritage. Although sometimes the Indo-Kiwi definition has been expanded to people with mixed racial parentage with one Indian parent or grandparent, this can be controversial as it generally tends to remove the ethnic heritage or identity of the foreign parent or grandparent which may be termed as insensitive to those with mixed parentage, who tend to value both their Indian and non-Indian parents and grandparents.
Indian women in Grey Lynn, Auckland in 1962 | |
Total population | |
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239,193
117,348 (born in India)
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Regions with significant populations | |
Auckland | 154,824 |
Wellington | 22,227 |
Waikato | 17,295 |
Canterbury | 14,763 |
Bay of Plenty | 10,335 |
Manawatū-Whanganui region | 4,374 |
Languages | |
New Zealand English • Hindi • Fijian Hindi • Gujarati • Malayalam • Odia • Bengali • Punjabi • Marathi • Tamil • Telugu • Kannada | |
Religion | |
Majority: Hinduism Minority: Sikhism • Christianity • Islam • Zoroastrianism • Jainism • Buddhism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
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Indian New Zealanders are the fastest growing Kiwi ethnic group, and the second largest group of New Zealand Asians after Chinese. The largest number of Indians living in New Zealand are from Fiji. The fifth largest language in New Zealand is Hindi, shown in the 2018 census. According to ENZ.org (a New Zealand Government affiliate), since 2011, 18,000 Indians have migrated to New Zealand. In 2011, the Indian population in New Zealand was 155,000, so there are 174,000 Indians in New Zealand (2014) due to the additional immigration of 18,000. Most early New Zealand Indians were of Punjabi or Gujarati descent.