For most of this century, we lost 20,000 New Zealand citizens a year.

Reducing net migration will not be enough to solve New Zealand's housing issue or lack of infrastructure, as reducing numbers will also close the tap for labour, a sociologist says.



Net migration spiked to 72,000 last year, double what New Zealand's natural population increase would have been.



The countries that contributed the most to this figure were China (10,351), India (7409) and the United Kingdom (6728). That was followed by South Africa, the Philippines, France and Germany.



The Government is expecting its policies to cut net migration by 20,000 to 30,000 people a year, mostly by limiting the number of student and work visas granted.

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Massey University sociologist Paul Spoonley said a big contributor to the increase in net migration in the past three years was fewer Kiwis leaving for overseas and more returning home.

DAVID UNWIN/STUFF Professor Paul Spoonley says reducing net migration by up to 30,000 people a year could be a concern if the Australian labour market improves.

Reducing net migration by up to 30,000 people a year could be a concern if the Australian labour market strengthened again and Kiwis moved there, Spoonley said.

For most of this century, we lost 20,000 New Zealand citizens (net) a year. In the past three years, that has fallen to the point where arrivals and departures of New Zealand citizens almost cancel each other out.

According to Statistics New Zealand, the country's population grew 2.1 per cent in 2016.

This is the fastest rate in the past few years, but looking back just to 1960 (which is how far back available data goes), there have been several years in which the rate of growth matched or exceeded that mark.

In 2003 it was 2 per cent, in 1974 it was 2.1 per cent, and in 1962 it was 2.5 per cent. On average, since 1960 the population has grown at 1.16 per cent per year.

Spoonley said New Zealand's stable political, environmental and economic climate made it a desirable destination, especially following Brexit and the US presidential election of 2016.

There was a clear divide in the types of visas people from the five countries which provided the biggest net gain of immigrants in 2017 - China, India, UK, Philippines and South Africa.

Immigrants from the UK, South Africa and Philippines were most likely to obtain working visas, while Chinese and Indian immigrants were more likely to be students.

Learn more about the information shown above, and explore more charts, at Figure.NZ's site.