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Glossary Term
Urban Areas


Term

Urban Areas

Synonym



Related Term


Source of Definition


Demographic Trends 2009

Short Definition


Statistical Activity

Classifications
Population and housing censuses; registers of population, dwellings and buildings

Definition
Non-administrative areas with urban characteristics and a high to moderate concentration of population. The classification of urban areas was revised for the 1991 Census of Population and Dwellings into three parts – main, secondary and minor urban areas:

Main urban areas – centres with populations of 30,000 or more. There are currently 16 main urban areas (12 in the North Island and four in the South). Auckland, Wellington, Hamilton, Napier-Hastings are further subdivided into zones.

Secondary urban areas – centres with populations between 10,000 and 29,999. There are currently 14 secondary urban areas.

Minor urban areas – centres with populations of 1,000 or more not already classified as urban (that is, not falling within a main or secondary urban area). There are currently 99 minor urban areas and, together with the above two categories, they constitute the urban population of New Zealand.

Urban areas are currently defined on the basis of the 1996 census usually resident population count. As a result, Greymouth is still classified as a secondary urban area, even though the 2001 and 2006 census usually resident population counts, and the estimated resident populations since 2001, fall below 10,000.

Example

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