Maintaining Pasifika languages
The vast majority of speakers of Pasifika languages are Sāmoan speakers. This makes speakers of Sāmoan the third largest language group in New Zealand, behind speakers of English and of te reo Māori.
The language question asked in the census was: “In what language(s) could you have a conversation about a lot of everyday things?” The statistics show that more than 60 per cent of Sāmoans and Tongans living in New Zealand can hold an everyday conversation in their respective Pasifika languages. This is a significant percentage, especially given that migration has been taking place for 60 years. Most speakers of Pasifika languages speak just one Pasifika language (that of their own ethnic group), although Sāmoan and, to a lesser extent, Tongan are also spoken by some members of other ethnic groups.