Kiribati New Zealanders refers to New Zealand citizens or permanent residents who are fully or partially of I-Kiribati descent. According to the 2018 census, 3,225 New Zealanders declared their ethnicity as Kiribati. ^[1]

Demographics

I-Kiribati people are classified as a subset of Pasifika New Zealanders under the Ethnicity New Zealand Standard Classification by Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa. ^[2] According to the 2006 Census, there were 1,116 Kiribati New Zealanders in New Zealand, which has tripled to 3,225 in the 2018 Census. ^[1]

As of 2018, only 41.3% of Kiribati New Zealanders were born in New Zealand. 58.7% were born overseas, most of them in Kiribati, with smaller groups of I-Kiribati immigrants born in Australia, Tuvalu and the United States. ^[1]

43.7% of New Zealand residents who declared their ethnicity as I-Kiribati live in the Auckland Region. The Kiribati community is especially prominent in the country town of Warkworth, where Gilbertese is the second most spoken language. Smaller I-Kiribati communities exist in the Waikato region and in Wellington. ^[3]

Organisations

New Zealand's Kiribati associations include the nationwide New Zealand Kiribati National Council, the Warkworth-based Kiribati Aotearoa Diaspora Directorate and the Otago Kiribati Islands Students' Association in Dunedin. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

Clendon Park in South Auckland is home to the Kiribati Uniting Church NZ. ^[7]

Kiribati Language Week is a yearly event organised by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples. ^[8]

References