New Zealand population could hit 5 million in next four years

New Zealand's population is growing at its fastest rate in more than 50 years and is likely to hit 5 million by 2020, the government statistics agency said Wednesday.

In the year ended June, the population grew by 2.1 percent, or 97,000, its fastest rate since the early 1960s, according to Statistics New Zealand.

"Our population was estimated to be 4.69 million at June 30, 2016, with net migration being 69,100 over the June year," senior demographer Kim Dunstan said in a statement.

The latest projections showed a high chance of the population rising to between 4.9 million and 5.1 million by 2020.

By 2025 the population was expected to be between 5 million and 5.5 million, and by 2068, the projections indicated a population of between 5.3 million and 7.9 million.

The long-term median net migration was assumed to fluctuate around 15,000 a year, but if there were average migration of 30,000 a year, the population could reach 7.5 million by 2068.

If there were no migration, the population would peak at 5.3 million around 2050 and then slowly decline.

The projections also showed growing numbers of older people in coming decades.

The number of people aged 85 and older would more than triple, from about 83,000 in 2016 to between 270,000 and 320,000 in the next 30 years.

Those aged 65 years and older would roughly double, from about 700,000 now to between 1.3 million and 1.5 million in 2046.

Overall population growth was expected to slow in the longer term as the population aged and the gap between births and deaths narrowed.

The rate of population growth could halve to less than 1 percent in the 2030s. Endit