Older people aged 60-plus along with children and teenagers made up just over a third of all residency approvals in the May year

There's a noticeable grey tinge to the latest residence visa data, with a significant cohort of people aged 60-plus gaining New Zealand residency.

According to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which incorporates Immigration NZ, 48,003 residence visas were approved in the 12 months to the end of May.

Of those, 3135 (6.5%) were to people aged 60 and above. Another 2436 residence visas were approved to people aged 50-59.

The number of older people gaining residence visas has increased substantially over the last three years.

Back in 2019, before pandemic restrictions interrupted migration flows, just 957 residence visas were approved to people aged 60 and above, which was just 2.7% of total residence visa approvals (all figures 12 months to May).

But their numbers jumped above 3000 a year in 2024 and have stayed there ever since.

At the other end of the age scale, 13,251 residence visas were approved to people aged 0-19 years in the 12 months to May this year.

So altogether, older people aged 60-plus, children and teenagers made up just over a third (34.1%) of residence visa approvals in the May year.

Of the 48,003 residence visas approved in the 12 months to May, 8949 were Indian citizens, followed by 6060 citizens of the Philippines, 5973 people from China, 3162 South Africans, 2901 from the USA ,2274 Fijians, 2235 from the UK , 1923 Sri Lankans, 1530 Samoans and 678 people from Myanmar.

The graph below shows the annual trend in approvals for the 60-plus age group since 2017.