The median age (half are older, and half are younger, than this age) of usual residents was 35.9 in the 2006 Census. In 1996, the median age was 33.0 years. This increase in the median age reflects New Zealand's ageing population.
The median age for males was 35.1 years, while the median age for females was 36.7 years. This reflects a longer life expectancy for women than for men.
There were 531 people aged 100 years or over at the time of the 2006 Census – around three-quarters were women.
Most of the increase in the usually resident population between 2001 and 2006 came from those in the working-age group of 15 to 64 years (up 225,657 or 9.3 percent).
The proportion of people under 15 years of age decreased from 22.7 percent in 2001 to 21.5 percent in 2006.
There was little change in the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over – this was 12.1 percent in 2001, and 12.3 percent in 2006.