UK, China and India provide most immigration to New Zealand

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The New Zealand government's statistical service, Statistics New Zealand, has released figures that show that, in the year to the end of September, there was a net population fall of 3,300 caused by migration.

Much of the loss can be explained by the continuing trend for native New Zealanders to emigrate, usually to Australia. In the year to September 2012, 53,700 New Zealanders left for Australia. Over the same period, 14,200 people travelled to New Zealand from Australia intending to stay not as visitors but as residents. Of these, most were New Zealand citizens returning from a spell abroad.

New Zealand enjoyed net gains of migrants from several countries including the UK (5,500 net migration), China (5,200) and India (5,000).

The population of New Zealand is 4,433,100. 2,389,000 of these are in work and the average wage is NZ$1,013.09 per week (£518.19, US$822.22). The country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.6% to NZ$203bn in the year to September 2012.

Statistics New Zealand also released visitor statistics. These show that the number of Chinese visitors to New Zealand is growing fast. In the year to the end of September 2012, there were over a million Australians who visited New Zealand. 198,400 visitors arrived from the UK. China came third with 186,800.

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