New Zealand as a Village of 100 People

If the population of New Zealand was squished down into a village of 100 people, what would that look like?

 

An intriguing question ...

I stumbled across an interesting infographic on the Statistics New Zealand website called "New Zealand as a village of 100 people."

My brain started whirring and I thought to myself, "I really hated statistics at school (I was more of a calculus kinda girl), but this is quite interesting!" and then I thought "I wonder what that would look like as a series of portraits?"

So I did it. I photographed 100 New Zealanders, in order to show population of New Zealand in a visual way. I printed the portraits on giant boards and displayed them in libraries across Tamaki Makaurau Auckland. Twas fun.

 
BEX_20161119_150253_Nasrine_crop_small.jpg
 

What does a New Zealander look like?

I took data from the 2013 census. Specifically, the three aspects of the data that are able to be portrayed visually: gender, age and ethnicity. So, out of 100 people, this is what a typical New Zealander will look like:

Gender

  • 51 females

  • 49 males

Age

  • 0-10 years / 13 people

  • 10-20 years / 14 people

  • 20-30 years / 13 people

  • 30-40 years / 12 people

  • 40-50 years / 14 people

  • 50-60 years / 13 people

  • 60-70 years / 11 people

  • 70-80 years / 6 people

  • 80+ years / 4 people

Ethnicity

  • 70 European,

  • 14 Māori,

  • 11 Asian,

  • 7 Pacific Islands,

  • 1 Middle East or Africa or Latin America

  • (Note: multiple answers were possible, so numbers equal more than 100)

 

Some more interesting figures ...

  • New Zealand's population was 4,242,048 (at the 2013 census)

  • Our population has tripled in the last 90 years!

  • The median age in New Zealand is 38

  • A third of all Māori are under the age of 15

  • Our Asian population has doubled in size since 2001

  • 1 in every 100 New Zealanders is homeless

 

2013 Census

Information sourced from the Statistics New Zealand infographic New Zealand as a Village of 100 People.

More info can be found here http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census.aspx and here http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2013-census/profile-and-summary-reports/2013-census-infographic-nzvillage.aspx and probably also by asking the all-knowing, all-powerful Google.