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International travel: July 2025 – Stats NZ information release

International travel: July 2025 – information release

10 September 2025

International travel covers the number and characteristics of overseas visitors and New Zealand resident travellers (short-term movements) entering or leaving New Zealand.

Key facts

Monthly arrivals – overseas visitors

Overseas visitor arrivals were 236,600 in July 2025, an increase of 14,700 from July 2024. The biggest changes were in arrivals from:

  • Australia (up 17,700)
  • China (down 3,700)
  • United States (down 1,200).

The 126,700 overseas visitor arrivals from Australia were a record for a July month. This coincided with the Australian school holiday period.

Visit our website to read this information release:

 

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International migration: July 2025 – Stats NZ information release

International migration: July 2025 – information release

10 September 2025

International migration statistics give the latest outcomes-based measure of migration, which includes estimates of migrants entering or leaving New Zealand.

Key facts

Annual migration

Provisional estimates for the July 2025 year compared with the July 2024 year were:

  • migrant arrivals: 140,500 (± 1,000), down 20 percent
  • migrant departures: 127,400 (± 1,100), up 14 percent
  • annual net migration: gain of 13,100 (± 1,400), compared with a net gain of 63,600 (± 200).

Annual migrant arrivals peaked at 234,800 in the year ended October 2023.

Annual migrant departures provisionally peaked at 127,500 in the year ended June 2025.

Visit our website to read this information release and to download CSV files:

 

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Defence News – NZDF to lead multi-national engineering team in Cook Islands

Source: New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF)

The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) will lead a multi-national effort carrying out engineering work in the Cook Islands this month.

Exercise Tropic Twilight will involve more than 45 New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) personnel working together with military tradespeople from the Australian Defence Force, Republic of Fiji Military Forces, His Majesty’s Armed Forces of Tonga and the Vanuatu Mobile Force.

The exercise is held annually, and over the coming month will see NZDF’s 25 Expeditionary Support Squadron, 2 Engineer Regiment, with Australian and Pacific colleagues, deliver practical support to the island of Ma’uke, about 280km northeast of Rarotonga.

“We are pleased to make this important and practical contribution,” said Commander Joint Forces, Major General Rob Krushka.

“These engineers will deliver support such as solar farm maintenance, upgrades to Ma’uke School, maintenance of a water bore, water tank repairs, and water collection upgrades.”

The exercise is funded each year in the Southwest Pacific by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and is delivered by the NZDF.

“The NZDF stands ready to respond to defence and security, search and rescue, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief events, as required,” Major General Krushka said.

“Our highly skilled personnel and partners will deliver engineering tasks that I am sure will be appreciated by the community of Ma’uke.”

The exercise will be the first time one of the newly acquired Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130J-30 Hercules aircraft will have landed on the island of Ma’uke.

As part of Tropic Twilight, the contingent will return via the main island of Raratonga, where the soldiers, with local police, will help deliver a Blue Light course with Cook Island youth – giving them leadership, discipline and teamwork skills in a structured but supportive environment.

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Public Roads – Transformative public access map unveiled

Source: Herenga ā Nuku – the Outdoor Access Commission

Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa, the Outdoor Access Commission, is releasing a major upgrade to its mapping of public access to the outdoors.
After two years of cutting-edge work, an example of the improvement is that we can now confidently identify 55,000 km1 of publicly accessible unformed legal roads in New Zealand and point to them on our interactive map.
Acting chief executive Phil Culling said the upgrade represents a significant milestone for Herenga ā Nuku, the country’s only mandated mapper of public access.
“This is the most comprehensive and robust digital representation of public access Aotearoa has ever had.”
Involving a vast amount of innovative work improving the quality of the data upon which the public access mapping is based, the upgrade represents a crucial tool for anyone who wants to get outdoors, Phil Culling said.
The new map is now available to the public and will sit in Herenga ā Nuku’s mapping menu beside the old version so that people can experiment, explore, and compare.
Herenga ā Nuku GIS manager Matt Grose, who led the upgrade, said his team will focus on public feedback before turning off the old version at end of the year.
“This latest upgrade is a paradigm shift in structure and reliability. We welcome all input as we continue toward completion,” Matt Grose said.
Unformed legal roads
One of the most exciting aspects of the new map is that it reveals the extent of unformed legal roads-or ‘paper roads.’
Previously, there was no clear difference in the mapping between a formed and unformed road, since their legal status in the cadastre is the same and the data we had didn’t allow for a distinction. Users had to cross-reference the public areas map with another data source, for example, an aerial imagery base map or a photo taken on the ground, to be able to distinguish a formed road from an unformed one. For example, to tell where an unformed road-section carried on over pasture or into bush, after the formed part of the same legal road ended. The upgrading of the data means we can now specify, in the data, which roads are likely to be unformed.
Also for the first time, we can calculate that these roads span 110,370 hectares-approximately 20 meters wide on average-and total 55,185 kilometres in length.
As a comparison, to travel 55,000km, you’d have to walk the length of New Zealand via the 3,000 km Te Araroa Trail no fewer than 18 times.
And in terms of area, if you set foot on every square metre of Tongariro National Park-it’s just under 80,000 ha-you’d still fall well short of the 110,370 ha of Aotearoa comprised of ‘paper roads’.
The total land occupied by all legal roads, both formed and unformed, is 362,926 hectares (181,463 km).
The region with the largest area in roads, formed and unformed, is Otago, with 42,835 ha. It also has the country’s most unformed legal roads, at 16,733 ha.
The region with the smallest area in all roads is Gisborne, at 9,431 ha; while the smallest amount of unformed legal roads belongs to Wellington, at 1,857 ha.
More numbers: North vs South
  • Total land area versus public access areas: The North Island has three-quarters (77%) of Aotearoa’s population, 43% of its land area, but less than a quarter (23%) of its publicly accessible outdoor areas.
  • Conservation land, unformed legal roads and tangata whenua land: The South Island has 81% of Aotearoa’s publicly accessible conservation land, 61% of its unformed legal roads and only 4% of its tangata whenua land.
Public access mapping: a timeline
The background of this upgrade goes as far back as 2001, when Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) launched Landonline as the country’s authoritative source of cadastral survey and title information. While it was a leap forward, it was not fully digital, and it had no mandate to record or map public access areas.
In 2008, the Walking Access Act established the Walking Access Commission (which later became Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa, the Outdoor Access Commission). The Act legally required the Commission to compile, hold and publish maps and information about land over which members of the public have walking access.
In 2009 this task became easier when LINZ made digital lodgement of survey and title transactions mandatory. That is, the records of these transactions could no longer be consigned to paper files stored in the back rooms of offices scattered around the country, but instead, they had to be accessible online to anyone, anywhere.
As a result, in 2010, the Walking Access Commission developed and launched the first version of its online mapping system, Walking Access Mapping System (WAMS). On top of LINZ’s survey and title records and a base layer composed of topographic or aerial imagery, the Commission could now add a layer showing public access areas.
Between 2010 and 2018, WAMS underwent various phases of improvement as the nation’s vast swathes of historic and current land information records were gradually digitised, translated, interpreted and otherwise captured by the new technology.
In 2018, it became clear that a more systematic approach was needed to fill gaps arising from the organic way the country’s land information was digitised, the limited public resources available, and the complexities of cross-government interaction.
As a result, also in 2018, George Williamson, one of the country’s most senior surveyors and land advisors, was commissioned to write an independent report on the state of the Commission’s public access data and how to make it more complete.
This prompted the Commission to rebuild its public access areas dataset from scratch.
In 2022, the Commission was renamed Herenga ā Nuku Aotearoa, the Outdoor Access Commission, reflecting that outdoor access also includes cyclists, horse riders and others. From that point, its mapping system, WAMS, kept its name in acronym form, but it no longer refers only to access on foot.
In 2023, to speed up and improve the rebuild of the public access areas dataset, the Commission launched a two-year Data Improvement Programme.
In early 2025, that programme developed a new data pipeline – an automated, repeatable process for identifying public access.
All these developments have now culminated in this latest upgrade: Aotearoa’s most complete mapping of public access areas is now open for the public to explore.
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Transport Sector – Tasman speed reductions redundant and costly – Transporting New Zealand

Source: Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand

Road freight association Transporting New Zealand says it is disappointed with Tasman District Council’s decision to proceed with widespread speed limit reductions across the district, saying that they simply don’t stack up. 
“On many of the roads where speed reductions have been approved, the mean operating speed is already well below the new limit, which makes the cost of implementing the changes and the return on investment highly questionable,” says Membership Manager Lindsay Calvi-Freeman. 
Examples include:
1. Goodall Road: will drop from 100 to 60 km/h, yet vehicles only average 36 km/h.
2. Riwaka-Kaiteriteri Road: will drop from 80 to 60 km/h, but the mean operating speed is already just 46 km/h.
3. Sandy Bay-Marahau Road: will drop from 80 to 60 km/h, but with a mean operating speed of 56 km/h, it’s already under the new limit.
“With safety gains ranging from nil to marginal, this is another example of symbolic changes being prioritised over genuine improvements,” Calvi-Freeman says. 
“Crash data shows these reductions will deliver virtually no safety improvements, yet the council seems happy to spend ratepayer money regardless.”
Calvi-Freeman says the council had supported some of Transporting New Zealand’s feedback, including opting to use advisory signs on some roads, instead of needlessly signposting blanket speed reductions. 
“However, the need for advisory signs on most of those roads is still highly questionable. Instead of prioritising investment on real roading improvements, the council is spending money on things that by its own admission will make little if any difference,” says Calvi-Freeman.
About Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand
Ia Ara Aotearoa Transporting New Zealand is the peak national membership association representing the road freight transport industry. Our members operate urban, rural and inter-regional commercial freight transport services throughout the country.
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First Responders – Fire and Emergency New Zealand welcomes four specialists home from Canada

Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand

Fire and Emergency New Zealand has welcomed its third contingent of firefighters home from Canada, where they have been supporting efforts to combat significant wildfires across Alberta.

The four-person specialist team departed New Zealand on 5 August and arrived home today (9 September). They have been undertaking specialist roles as taskforce leaders and helicopter coordinators.

Assistant National Commander Nick Pyatt says the team has worked in remote and challenging conditions across Alberta for the past five weeks.

“Our people have shown incredible resilience and professionalism throughout this deployment as they worked alongside crews from Canada and several other countries. We’re proud of the way they’ve represented Fire and Emergency and New Zealand,” he says.

New Zealand firefighters are still deployed in Manitoba, Canada. A further team of four specialists are working as part of an eight-person Incident Management Team comprising experienced personnel from New Zealand and Australia. An additional fifth specialist is fulfilling the International Liaison Officer role.

“These deployments help build our capability to manage large wildfires at home, and we are more than happy to provide mutual assistance to our international counterparts,” Nick Pyatt says.
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Employment Stats – Jobs fall again with no plan from the Government – NZCTU

Source: NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi

NZCTU Te Kauae Kaimahi Economist Craig Renney is saying that new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows that the labour market is even more bleak than feared, with the loss of more than 10,000 jobs in just three months.

“What we are seeing is an unemployment crisis in New Zealand, and this Government is failing to do anything about it. Working people are paying the price of their inaction,” said Renney.

“There are more than 50,000 fewer jobs than in December 2023, with widespread falls across a wide range of sectors, including construction (16,230 fewer jobs), manufacturing (8,707), retail (6,091), professional services (7,228), IT and telecommunications (3,527), and public administration (6103).

“Every region has seen job losses. Since December 2023 there have been 23,000 jobs lost in Auckland – 35 jobs lost every day. Nowhere in the country has escaped the pain of rising unemployment, even in areas where the local economy is stronger.

“The economy is particularly difficult for younger workers, with 19,842 fewer filled jobs for 15–24-year-olds than this time last year, and 41,000 fewer filled jobs than this time 2 years ago.

“Total gross earnings rose 1.5.% last year – well below current inflation of 2.7%. This supports data we have seen elsewhere that many workers are falling further behind the current cost of living. This has likely been compounded by real-terms cuts in the minimum wage, and fewer jobs being available.

“For the past 9 months, the number of jobs being lost was declining, but is now rising quickly again. Outside of a COVID-affected quarter, there was not a single quarter where filled jobs declined going back to June 2019. Now we have had more than a year of continued job losses across the country.

“The Government has no plan to manage this crisis and has resorted to sanctions and removing people from jobseeker support rather than tackling the issue.

“More job losses and business closures are being announced every day, and the Government does not seem to have any ability to recognise the growing scale of the challenge,” said Renney.

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Lifestyle – New Zealand’s largest initiative to Get More People Physically Active

Source: Exercise New Zealand

Exercise New Zealand's Subsidised Gym Membership Programme is one of the country's largest initiatives to help more Kiwis get physically active. Available year-round, the programme provides 40-70% off gym memberships at over 350 participating facilities nationwide, breaking down financial barriers and creating more equitable opportunities for people to begin, or return to, their exercise journey. With the September rollover upon us, all memberships are restocked, making now the perfect time to secure a subsidy.

“There is high demand for these memberships, and while the subsidy is available at over 350 facilities, each has only a limited number of subsidies available, so we encourage people to get in quick,” says ExerciseNZ CEO Richard Beddie.

Beddie adds:
“Starting an exercise journey is personal, but it benefits everyone, your own health, your whānau through a longer life span, and the taxpayer through reduced health costs. Above all, people simply feel better when they do it. The side effects are all positive, exercise really is the closest thing we have to a magic pill.”

Why Getting Active Matters

Research consistently shows that regular physical activity is one of the most effective tools for improving health, often outperforming pharmaceuticals in both prevention and treatment. The former United States Surgeon General Dr Regina Benjamin has described exercise as a “miracle pill”, highlighting its power to improve physical and mental wellbeing across all populations.

Exercise is now considered a front-line therapy for conditions including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and mental health conditions, delivering benefits that are broader and safer than many medications.

Physical activity also plays a powerful role in reducing pressure on the healthcare system. The latest studies show that exercise lowers the incidence and severity of chronic diseases and age-related decline, potentially delaying or avoiding costly medical interventions (Saini et al., 2025). Making gym access more affordable could therefore result in significant long-term savings for the public health sector. 

Beyond physical health, the mental health benefits of regular exercise are profound, from boosting mood to reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression, and enhancing resilience (Nascimento & dos Santos, 2025).

Exercise also plays an important role for populations such as people with disabilities, who report not only improved physical health but also greater daily motivation, psychological stability, and overall happiness when they have access to exercise facilities (Cho & Chang, 2025).

Alarmingly in New Zealand, physical inactivity costs taxpayers over $600 million annually in direct health costs and results in a loss of more than $2.3 billion to GDP (source: Deloitte's Cost of Physical Inactivity, 2024).

How It Works

The subsidy is available to:

  • First-time gym-goers, or
  • Anyone who has not been a member of a gym in the last 12 months, and
  • Anyone who has not previously received this subsidy.

There's no complex application process. Instead, you simply:

  1. Visit www.exercisenz.org.nz to check eligibility and browse participating providers by region.
  2. Secure their subsidy by completing a short membership form.
  3. Receive a voucher via email to redeem directly at their chosen facility.

Key Details:

  • Over 350 locations nationwide
  • 40%-70% off standard gym membership fees
  • Open to those not currently in a gym and not a member in the past 12 months
  • Simple online process, check eligibility, secure your voucher, and get started

With the September rollover around the corner, there's never been a better time for eligible New Zealanders to access affordable, life-changing fitness opportunities. Exercise New Zealand urges individuals, whānau, health providers, and community leaders to help spread the word and support those who may benefit most. By making exercise more accessible, we're not just helping people move, we're investing in a healthier, more resilient Aotearoa.

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Assistance – Ingram Micro New Zealand celebrates $540,000 collectively raised for Cure Kids

Source: Ingram Micro New Zealand

Supporting life-changing research to improve health outcomes for children
across Aotearoa

Auckland, New Zealand 9 September, 2025 – Ingram Micro New Zealand celebrates its continued commitment to Cure Kids to support child health research.

Since first partnering with Cure Kids in 2014, Ingram Micro New Zealand’s ongoing relationship has helped raise over NZ$540,000 for the non-profit organisation. This joint effort has enabled crucial advancements in paediatric health research, benefiting the lives of thousands of children across the country.

So far in 2025, Ingram Micro New Zealand has helped raise more than NZ$40,000 to work towards its commitment to improving health outcomes for children across Aotearoa, including life-saving paediatric research, such as stillbirth prevention, improved care for babies born prematurely, and treatment for childhood diseases. 

“Ingram Micro is honoured to continue our support of Cure Kids and the critical research it funds,” said Ingram Micro New Zealand Managing Director Leon De Suza. “Our ongoing support for Cure Kids is part of our dedication to the charity's mission of undertaking critical research that is tangibly improving the lives of children and families across the country.”

Ingram Micro New Zealand’s 2025 support has included last month’s Riccarton Park Red Nose Day Races in Christchurch and the inaugural Wellington Rugby for Research event held on July 10, which alone raised NZ$16,000.

Rugby for Research featured Cure Kids ambassador Finn, who bravely shared his journey of living with type 1 diabetes, offering a personal insight into the daily challenges faced by many tamariki. His story puts a human face to the vital work Cure Kids is doing to change health outcomes and serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of funding research that can improve – and even save – young lives.

The event also attracted a strong turnout from current and former elite athletes, including Black Ferns alumnae Melodie Robinson, Monalisa Codling and Shannon Willoughby, as well as former All Blacks coach and Cure Kids patron Sir Graham Henry.

“The breadth of activity we support, from race days and ladies’ lunches to our own Red Nose Day morning tea events, golf days and the Rebel 24-hour challenge, reflects how close this cause is to our hearts.” said De Suza. “This means so much to our team because everyone knows someone who has been affected. Cure Kids puts family first through its research and events, and that resonates deeply.”

Founded in 1971, Cure Kids is New Zealand’s leading charity focused on raising funds for research into serious childhood health conditions. Over the past five decades, Cure Kids has invested more than NZ$65 million into New Zealand-based research, which has helped transform diagnosis, treatment and care for thousands of seriously ill children.

For 11 years, Ingram Micro New Zealand has been a constant champion of Cure Kids, during which time the leading child health research charity has achieved numerous breakthroughs. Some of these notable advancements include proof that vitamin D supplementation during pregnancy and infancy prevents doctor visits for acute respiratory infections in early childhood, the development of a robotic gait trainer to help children with cerebral palsy walk, evidence that sleeping on one’s side during pregnancy can reduce the risk of stillbirths by 50 per cent, and evidence that babies born prematurely at 23 to 24 weeks can survive and thrive.  

“Cure Kids extends heartfelt thanks to Ingram Micro for its steadfast commitment to our mission, raising more than NZ$540,000 during the past 11 years,” said Frances Soutter, CEO at Cure Kids. “As a long-term supporter of Cure Kids, the Ingram Micro New Zealand team has a genuine passion for what we do and their unwavering commitment to fundraising events. We genuinely feel that we are part of the Ingram Micro whanau.”

For more information on how to support other Cure Kids initiatives or get involved, please visit https://www.curekids.org.nz/.

About Ingram Micro

Ingram Micro is a leading technology company in the global information technology ecosystem. With the ability to reach nearly 90% of the global population, we play a vital role in the worldwide IT sales channel, bringing products and services from technology manufacturers and cloud providers to a highly diversified base of business-to-business technology experts. Through Ingram Micro Xvantage™, our AI-powered digital platform, we offer what we believe to be the industry’s first comprehensive business-to-consumer-like experience, integrating hardware and cloud subscriptions, personalised recommendations, instant pricing, order tracking, and billing automation. We also provide a broad range of technology services, including financing, specialised marketing, lifecycle management, and technical pre and post-sales professional support. Learn more at www.ingrammicro.com.

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Greenpeace – "Bottom trawling kills" message projected onto downtown Wellington building as fisheries meeting starts

Source: Greenpeace

Greenpeace has projected images of destroyed coral onto a downtown Wellington building, highlighting the destruction caused by New Zealand bottom trawlers, as an international fisheries meeting starts in the capital city.Delegates from the EU, America, Australia and the Pacific are meeting in Wellington this week to discuss the management of fisheries in the international waters of the South Pacific as part of the SPRFMO Scientific Committee (South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation).New Zealand is the only country still bottom trawling the high seas of this region, including in the Tasman Sea between Aotearoa and Australia – despite environmental organisations calling for this practice to stop.
“Bottom trawling is a highly destructive fishing method that bulldozes everything in its path, including precious corals that can take hundreds of years to grow”, says Greenpeace ocean campaigner Juan Parada.”It’s shocking that New Zealand is the only country dragging heavy weighted nets over an area that is so vibrant, and full of diverse ocean life that it’s been earmarked for protection in one of the world’s first global ocean sanctuaries.”We’ve projected images of destroyed coral, filmed along known trawl tracks in the deep, to reveal what’s at stake if trawling is allowed to continue. We’ve also shown images of the vibrant life that thrives here and is worth protecting. “Our message is clear – bottom trawling kills. To protect the ocean for the future bottom trawling must stop in these highly diverse areas.”
Last year a New Zealand trawler, the Tasman Viking, pulled up 37kg of coral on the Lord Howe Rise which is in the area that SPRFMO governs, leading to the area being closed to trawling temporarily.Greenpeace has since carried out a scientific survey of this closed area and has submitted an observer paper to the SPRFMO Scientific Committee, outlining the data available from four deep sea video surveys on the Lord Howe Rise.
The survey was carried out despite the New Zealand government refusing to share the co-ordinates with the scientists working with Greenpeace.
Analysis of the footage taken from this area shows there are diverse species of coral living here, making the case for permanent closure of this site to New Zealand bottom trawlers.
Some of the coral observed in this region are estimated to be over a metre in height – indicating they are likely to be old individuals. Deep sea corals are known to be incredibly slow growing, with some growing just centimetres per year. Analysis of the footage by scientists has confirmed the presence of cup, black, bamboo, gorgonian and precious corals, as well as feather stars and sponges.”The impacts of bottom trawling are no longer in dispute, especially on ancient ecosystems like deep sea coral forests,” says Parada.
“We’ve all seen the Attenborough documentary which highlighted how destructive bottom trawling is. This type of fishing is happening in the high seas between Aotearoa and Australia, and now is the moment to protect the precious life that is irrefutably there – and is essential to ocean health.”
“The New Zealand government cannot ignore the findings from this Lord Howe Rise site, as uncomfortable as they may be for the bottom trawlers. There is rare and diverse life here, and in a biodiversity crisis – these areas must be protected from their major threat – bottom trawling.”