19 Aug 2014

More saying they belong to Ngapuhi

5:36 pm on 19 August 2014

The country's largest iwi, Ngapuhi, is continuing to grow, with more than 125,000 people saying they belong to it, Statistics New Zealand says.

Information from the 2013 census has been used to profile different iwi and ethnicities.

The figures show the number of people affiliating themselves to Ngapuhi has grown from 102,981 in 2001 to 125,601 a year ago.

Statistics New Zealand said although most people of Maori descent belong to one iwi, 9042 people identified with five different tribes.

It says 85.8% of people affiliated with a single iwi lived in the North Island.

Profiles of 143 ethnicities show that the Dutch population is amongst the oldest, with a median age of 47 - more than double the median age of the Tuvaluan population at 19.