People
Tasman District's estimated resident population is 48,400 (June 2012 estimate) representing 1.1% of New Zealand's population.
Most of Tasman's urban population lives in the Richmond Ward (10,851). It has the district's fastest growth rate, particularly in North Richmond where the population has grown by 23% since 1996.
The second-largest area of growth is in the Waimea/Moutere Ward. Mapua has posted the highest growth - 27.4% between 1996 and 2001.
Although Tasman has recorded strong growth, the region has a low population density. As at March 2001, there were an estimated 4.3 people per square kilometre. This is mainly due to the lack of large urban areas and 58% of the area constituting lands covered by national parks.
People of European ancestry make up 82.7% of the Tasman population, significantly higher than the 67.6% for New Zealand overall.
The number of Māori, European, Pacific Island and Asians have increased markedly since 1991, with Māori increasing by 60.5%. The main iwi represented in the wider Tasman region are Ngati Rarua, Ngati Tama (Golden Bay and Tasman Bay), Te Atiawa, Ngati Koata, Ngati Kuia (eastern Tasman Bay) and the Poutini Ngai Tahu (southern areas).
Famous former residents include nuclear physicist Ernest Rutherford, former Prime Ministers Bill Rowling and Sir Keith Holyoake, and Sir Michael Myers, Chief Justice of New Zealand 1929-1946.
Read more about this topic: Tasman Region
Famous quotes containing the word people:
“Slavery can only be abolished by raising the character of the people who compose the nation; and that can be done only by showing them a higher one.”
—Maria Weston Chapman (1806–1885)
“There was a green branch hung with many a bell
When her own people ruled this tragic Eire;
And from its murmuring greenness, calm of Faery,
A Druid kindness, on all hearers fell.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“What’s important is promising something to the people, not actually keeping those promises.... The people have always lived on hope alone.”
—Hermann Broch (1886–1951)