New Zealand European

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New Zealand European


Total population
2,609,592 67.6% of New Zealand population^[1]
Regions with significant populations
North Island, South Island, Australia
Languages
English
Religions
Christianity 60.0% Anglicanism 19.2% Catholicism 13.4% Presbyterianism 13.6% no religion 32.2% object to answer 7.1%
Related ethnic groups
Anglo-African, Afrikaner, English, Irish, Scottish, Dutch, White British, Anglo-Celtic Australian, White African, White American and other Whites

The term New Zealand European is the primary term used to collectively refer to people of European descent who reside in New Zealand, or who have European ancestor(s) from New Zealand. Most European New Zealanders are of British and Irish ancestry, with smaller percentages of other European ancestries such as Dutch, Italian and South Slav. ^[2]

Although there are a number of variants, New Zealand European is the preferred term for the majority of government departments and employers.

1 Census statistics
2 Alternative Terms
- 2.1 Pakeha
- 2.2 British
3 See Also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Census statistics

European was the largest broad ethnic group counted in the 2006 Census, comprising 67.6 percent of the population compared with 80.1 percent in the 2001 census^[3]. The apparent drop in this figure is artifactual and due the introduction of the category 'New Zealander' to the ethnicity question^{[citation needed]}. 11.1 percent of respondents were counted as New Zealanders, the majority of which are presumed to be of European descent.

[edit] Alternative Terms

[edit] Pakeha

Main article: Pākehā

The term Pākehā is often used interchangeably with New Zealand European (although Pākehā can also be used to describe any non-Māori person). New Zealanders who consider "European" to be ananchronistic and inadequate often prefer Pākehā, feeling that this better describes their ethnic and cultural identity. However, many New Zealanders of European descent do not like the word Pakeha and consider it to be racist and pejorative.

[edit] British

See also: Briton

A significant number of New Zealanders are of British ancestry.^[4] As late as the 1950s it was common for New Zealanders to refer to themselves as ethnically British, such as when Prime Minister Keith Holyoake described Sir Edmund Hillary's successful ascent of Mt. Everest as "[putting] the British race and New Zealand on top of the world".^[5]

While "European" identity predominates political discourse in New Zealand today, the term "British" is still used by some to explain their ethnicity and is a useful descriptor in terms of ancestry.

In an interview with the New Zealand Listener in 2006, the opposition leader of that time Don Brash made the following statement;

British immigrants fit in here very well. My own ancestry is all British. New Zealand values are British values, derived from centuries of struggle since Magna Carta. Those things make New Zealand the society it is.^[6]