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Kōrero: Death rates and life expectancy

Declining Māori population

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Declining Māori population

While the Pākehā population grew quickly from the 1860s, the Māori population declined. By the mid-1880s, when this newspaper article was published, it was approaching its lowest point, reached in 1891. This trend led many Pākehā commentators to talk of Māori as 'a dying race'.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

National Library of New Zealand, Papers Past

Reference: Wanganui Herald, 29 May 1886, p. 2

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Ian Pool, Death rates and life expectancy – Pākehā epidemiological transition, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/document/26580/declining-maori-population (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Ian Pool, i tāngia i te 19 April 2011.