New Zealanders, and in particular professionals and tradies, continue to stream across the Tasman to live with our Aussie mates.

The latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show that in February 4340 of us upped sticks and headed across to the Lucky Country, up by 1000 from the same month last year, and up 627 from February 2009.

In the year to the end of February, 34,550 Kiwis had gone to Australia, up from 26,563 the previous year, and a huge contrast to the 10,119 Australians who moved here.

More New Zealanders move to Aus-tralia than anywhere else. Out of a total of 48,322 Kiwis who left – to places including the next most popular destination, the UK, US and China – 71% moved to Australia. And it's not just tradies crossing the ditch. The most common occupation listed by those who were leaving permanently was professional, followed by technicians and trade workers.

Despite ideas that Kiwis are flooding to work in mines, the smallest number of those leaving were machinery operators and drivers, 1178.

The statistics come as Kea, a website which aims to connect expat Kiwis, launches a "global census" to try to find out how many New Zealanders are living overseas.

It is estimated up to one million New Zealanders are living permanently in another country at any time.

A similar survey held in 2006 yielded 18,000 responses from 155 countries.

The survey found that New Zealanders are strongly connected to home, with half maintaining economic interests in New Zealand and the vast majority keeping alive their family and social connections; many had "very high incomes by New Zealand standards" and they were more than twice as likely as other New Zealanders to have a tertiary education.

The 18,000 were evenly divided on their future plans – with only about half planning to return to New Zealand to live.