Tasman has made big steps in home ownership, has the highest percentage of people working from home and has the lowest proportion of regular smokers, according to new data.
Statistics New Zealand has just released more information gathered from the 2023 Census which shows 77.4 per cent of households in Tasman now own their own home. That was up 12.3 per cent, or 2,439 dwellings, since 2018 and was the largest percentage growth in the country.
Around two-thirds of households in the country, or 66 per cent, now own their home or hold it in a family trust, compared with 64.5 per cent in 2018. The areas with the highest home ownership rates were districts close to Christchurch such as Waimakariri and Selwyn, plus places close to Wellington including Carterton. Statistics New Zealand identified a pattern where areas with older populations have higher home ownership rates.
Which brings us to age, and the 2023 Census revealed Tasman and West Coast have the oldest median age in the country, at 46.8 years and 48.1 respectively. That means that in Tasman half of its population is younger than 46.8 years and half of the population is older. The national median age of the population in 2023 increased to 38.1 years, from 37.4 years in the 2018 Census.
Tasman is also a region where people like to work from home. The 2023 Census showed that 20.8 per cent of employed adults in the region mostly worked from home, which was the highest percentage in the country.
Nationwide, the number of people who mostly worked from home increased by almost 60 per cent between 2018 and 2023. At the time of the Census, 17.7 percent or 464,130 employed people over the age of 15 mostly worked from home.
When it comes to smoking, Tasman has the lowest proportion of regular smokers in the country, at 6.3 per cent. That refers to adult smokers over the age of 15 who regularly smoke one or more cigarettes a day.
Nationwide, the number of regular smokers has halved since the 2013 Census. In 2023, 7.7 per cent of the population or 310,809 people were regular smokers compared with 15.1 per cent or 463,194 people in 2013.
