WELLINGTON, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's annual net migration was down to 71,000 in the September 2017 year, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Friday.
Migrant arrivals were 131,600 and migrant departures were 60,600, Stats NZ said.
"The annual net migration in September 2017 was lower than the record annual net migration of 72,400 reached in the July 2017 year," population statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said.
"Compared to this peak, we had fewer arrivals and more departures in the September 2017 year," Dolan said.
In the year ending September 2017, net migration was mostly driven by non-New Zealand citizens, who provided New Zealand with a net gain of 72,600 migrants, Stats NZ said, adding that migration of New Zealand citizens saw a net loss of 1,600 migrants.
Both arrivals and departures of non-New Zealand citizens were up from a year ago, it said, adding that arrivals of non-New Zealand citizens increased from 94,400 in the September 2016 year to 99,600 in the September 2017 year, and departures of non-New Zealand citizens increased from 22,300 to 27,000 over the same period.
Net migration was 6,800 in September 2017, down from 7,900 in September 2016, the department said, adding that migrant arrivals were 11,100 and migrant departures were 4,300 in September 2017.
The drop in net migration in September 2017 was due to both the decrease in migrant arrivals, which was down 600, and the increase in migrant departures, which was up 500, according to Stats NZ.
