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Story: Ngā tāone nui – Māori and the city

Māori urbanisation, 1926–2006

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Māori urbanisation, 1926–2006

In 1945 around a quarter of Māori lived in urban areas and the remainder lived rurally. By the mid-1990s the situation had completely reversed, with around 80% of Māori living in urban areas.

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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Source: Ian Pool, Te [no-lexicon]iwi[/no-lexicon] Māori. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1991, pp. 123, 154, 182, 197; and Statistics New Zealand

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How to cite this page

Aroha Harris, Ngā tāone nui – Māori and the city – Māori migrate to the cities, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/24852/maori-urbanisation-1926-2006 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Aroha Harris, published 24 January 2011, updated 1 September 2024.