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Kōrero: Armed forces

Defence Force personnel by gender and ethnicity, 2012

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These graphs show New Zealand Defence Force personnel by gender and ethnicity at 1 January 2012. Not surprisingly, men hugely outnumber women in military (regular and reserve forces) roles – the gap is much smaller in the civilian employment category.

Europeans were the largest single ethnic group in all sectors of the Defence Force. Māori were well represented in the military compared to their proportion of the general population (14.6% in the 2006 census), though were under-represented in the air force. Pacific and Asian people were underrepresented in all categories.

Note: most responses in the 'other' ethnicity category were 'New Zealander' or 'Kiwi'.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Source: New Zealand Defence Force

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Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Jim Rolfe, Armed forces – Historical overview, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/graph/35716/defence-force-personnel-by-gender-and-ethnicity-2012 (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Jim Rolfe, i tāngia i te 3 May 2012, updated 1 April 2020.