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Story: Urban Māori

Māori urbanisation, 1926–86

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This graph shows the increase in the percentage of Māori living in urban areas between 1926 and 1986. The rate of urban migration was particularly rapid after the Second World War.

Using this item

Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Source: Ian Pool, Te iwi Māori. Auckland: Auckland University Press, 1991, pp. 123, 154, 182, 197

This item has been provided for private study purposes (such as school projects, family and local history research) and any published reproduction (print or electronic) may infringe copyright law. It is the responsibility of the user of any material to obtain clearance from the copyright holder.

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How to cite this page

Paul Meredith, Urban Māori – Urbanisation, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/graph/3571/maori-urbanisation-1926-86 (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Paul Meredith, published 4 March 2009, updated 17 February 2015.

Comments

Danielle
07 March 2014
From the year 1930 many Maori people found work easier in towns. Today the river population is very low, it is less than 1,000 people. The reason why the Maori people moved to towns is because during the war elderly and young people found living in small places very hard with a lot of people because they couldn’t grow enough crops to feed everybody. How would you feel if you had to live in a very large family of up to 40 people living on a very small piece of land? Well this is what the Maori people were feeling without their crops making them any money.