Long-term Insights Briefings are future-focused reports that help government agencies think about the big issues that could shape Aotearoa New Zealand over the next 10 years and beyond.
Public service agencies are required to develop a Long-term Insights Briefing at least once every three years and are a statutory duty of departmental chief executives under the Public Service Act 2020.
These briefings are not government policy. They are independent, evidence-based insights prepared by public service agencies to support better long-term decision-making.
Our 2025 Long-term Insights Briefing examines Māori Pacific peoples - those who share both Māori and Pacific whakapapa and the opportunities their growth and leadership present for New Zealand’s future.
Read the Long-term Insights Briefing now (PDF, 3.9MB)
This briefing brings together lived experience, community aspirations, and research to inform long-term thinking across government and society.
We focused on this topic as Māori-Pacific peoples represent one of New Zealand’s youngest and fastest-growing communities, with a population of around 94,000 and a median age of 15 years.
Māori-Pacific peoples’ cultural knowledge and adaptability are likely to shape social, cultural, and economic trends and climate resilience strategies in the coming decades, as rising environmental pressures demand responses that uphold identity and wellbeing.
However, this group remains underrepresented in research and policy. Improving visibility and understanding is essential for inclusive, future-focused decision-making. Without improved visibility, there is a risk that policy settings may not respond effectively to the needs and strengths of a rapidly growing demographic.
The briefing has now been tabled in Parliament.
The briefing will now be referred to a Parliamentary Select Committee for scrutiny and feedback.
In late 2024, we began the first round of consultation to test the proposed topic of understanding Māori-Pacific identity in Aotearoa. Through 12 in-person hui and nearly 400 public submissions, participants expressed strong support and shared valuable insights. Of those who responded, 18% identified as Māori-Pacific, 66% as Pacific, and 13% as Māori. These findings confirmed the topic and shaped the direction of the briefing.
From May to July 2025, we carried out a second round of consultation to deepen understanding and gather lived experiences. This included regional engagement with Māori and Pacific communities, young people, iwi representatives, and intersectional groups, resulting in over 200 attendees and 244 online submissions, two-thirds of which came from Māori-Pacific respondents.
We also worked with government agencies, Pacific stakeholders, and subject matter experts. Consultation revealed strong support for exploring Māori-Pacific identity and provided rich insights into aspirations and challenges, from revitalising languages and redesigning data systems to bridging the digital divide.
Disclaimers
These results are not official statistics. They have been created for research purposes from the Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) which is carefully managed by Stats NZ. For more information about the IDI please visit https://www.stats.govt.nz/integrated-data/.
Access to the data used in this study was provided by Stats NZ under conditions designed to give effect to the security and confidentiality provisions of the Data and Statistics Act 2022. The results presented in this study are the work of the author, not Stats NZ or individual data suppliers.
Integrated data | Stats NZ
Stats NZ collects data from different sources and links it together to create integrated data.
In our first Long-term Insights Briefing published in 2023, we discovered limitations in the way government collects ethnicity data. For example, many New Zealanders who identify as both Māori and a Pacific ethnicity or ethnicities are currently only counted as Māori in some datasets. This underlines a challenge in understanding the needs and opportunities for people with multiple ethnicities, particularly in an increasingly diverse New Zealand.
Read the 2023 Long-term Insights Briefing: Improving Pacific Data Equity