Tupu Ola Moui Volume 2: Pacific Health Workforce

Introduction

This report is part of the Tupu Ola Moui Pacific Health Chart Book series, which provides comprehensive and up-to-date data on the health of Pacific peoples in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Designed as a clear and accessible resource, this series offers straightforward descriptions of key health data to enable users to further analyse and interpret their implications. The Tupu Ola Moui series serves as a foundational reference point for understanding the current state of Pacific health.

This volume of the Chart Book series relates to Te Mana Ola: The Pacific Health Strategy priority area 5: Kau ngāue – Workforce.

This priority focuses on ‘growing and supporting strong Pacific health leadership and a resilient health workforce that reflects the population it serves’.

The other reports in this series are:

• Tupu Ola Moui Volume 1: Pacific Population in New Zealand
• Tupu Ola Moui Volume 3: Healthier Environments
• Tupu Ola Moui Volume 4: Health System – Part One
• Tupu Ola Moui Volume 5: Health System – Part Two

Glossary

Allied health

A broad range of 43 health care professions distinct from medicine, nursing and dentistry.

The definition of ‘allied health profession’ is somewhat arbitrary. There have been several unsuccessful attempts to define a finite number of professions under this heading. The Ministry takes an inclusive approach for the many professions that could fall under the allied health umbrella.

Examples of allied health professions include physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech-language therapists, audiologists, dietitians, podiatrists, medical imaging technologists (radiographers), radiation therapists, medical laboratory scientists, orthotists and prosthetists, social workers, psychologists, paramedics and exercise physiologists.

Health social workers

Professionals within the wider social worker workforce who provide psychosocial support and services to individuals, families and communities within health care settings.

Kaiāwhina

An over-arching term to describe non-regulated roles in the health and disability sector.

Kaiāwhina occupations in New Zealand include health care assistants / hospital aides, support workers / home and community support workers, disability support workers, mental health support workers, addiction support workers, therapy assistants, diversional/activities therapists, peer support workers, public health/community health workers and contact centre and advisory roles.

NCEA

National Certificate of Educational Achievement.

Pacific peoples

Refers to people who identify with one or more of the following ethnic groups: Samoan, Cook Islands Māori (Cook Islanders), Tongan, Niuean, Tokelauan, Fijian and other within the statistical definitions of ‘Other Pacific peoples’ and ‘Pacific peoples not further defined (nfd)’

Defined comprehensively by Stats NZ within the ‘Aria’ classification tool.

Other Pacific peoples

The ethnic groups of Indigenous Australian, Hawaiian, i-Kiribati, Nauruan, Papua New Guinean, Pitcairn Islander, Rotuman, Tahitian, Solomon Islander, Tuvaluan, Ni Vanuatu and Pacific peoples not elsewhere classified.

Summary

Population

There were over 12,000 Pacific health workers in 2024, but Pacific peoples are underrepresented across nearly all health professions. There were 12,351 Pacific health workers in 2024, making up 5.3% of the total health workforce. Because Pacific peoples make up 8.9% of the total population of New Zealand, this means that they were underrepresented in the heath workforce.

Health workers

There are two main categories of health workers:

• Regulated health workforce workers (such as doctors, nurses, and midwives).
  • There were 4,746 Pacific peoples working in the regulated health workforce in 2024, representing 3.7% of that workforce.
  • This group includes the allied health workforce. There were 835 Pacific peoples working in the allied health professions in 2024.
• Kaiāwhina/non-regulated health workers (such as community support workers, disability support workers, mental health and addictions support workers and hospital orderlies).
  • There were 7,605 Pacific peoples working in the non-regulated health workforce in 2024, representing 7.3% of that workforce.
  • Data about this workforce is less comprehensive and accurate than data on other health workforce groups, but we know that non-regulated workers made up the largest group of Pacific health workers.[2]

[1] In most cases we refer to data from the 2024 year in this report. Where we have used data from other years, such as 2023, we have noted this.

[2] From linked 2013 and 2018 Census data, taking into account the age profiles of relevant occupational groupings, Health New Zealand staff developed a model to forecast numbers of non-regulated health practitioners. The Pacific percentage has been taken from the 2018 Census data and assumed to apply in 2024.

Doctors

The number of Pacific doctors has more than tripled over the past two decades. It reached 522 in 2024[3], which accounted for 2.6%[4] of all doctors. Most Pacific doctors (297) in 2023 were non-specialists (either doctors in training or medical officers).

Of the 200 Pacific doctors with specialist registration in 2023, 92 were working as general practitioners and 13 were working in general surgery. The remaining medical specialities each had 11 or fewer Pacific medical specialists.

Of the 497 Pacific doctors working in 2023, 37.2% were Samoan and 20.5% were Tongan. Slightly more than half (53.1%) of the Pacific doctors worked in the Auckland region, where they made up 4.2% of the region’s medical workforce.

[3] The number of Pacific medical doctors noted in this report varies depending on the point in time (2023 or 2024) or source (Medical Council of New Zealand or Health New Zealand). In regard to the latter, each organisation uses a different methodology for deciding whether to report an individual as being of ‘Pacific peoples’ ethnicity.

[4] Using the Medical Council of New Zealand practice for reporting Pacific medical doctors provides a lower percentage share (2.4%).

Nurses

Pacific nurses formed the largest group within the Pacific regulated health workforce, numbering 3,137 in 2024, or 4.5% of all nurses. The Pacific nursing workforce in 2023 included 12 nurse practitioners and 178 enrolled nurses. Most Pacific nurses in 2023 (1,455) worked in Auckland, making up 8.8% of the region’s nursing workforce.

The practice settings with the largest number of Pacific nurses in 2023 were mental health (inpatient and community) (356), primary health care (340), medical (269), surgical (216) and aged care (194). Those settings where Pacific nurses had the highest representation were inpatient mental health (10.3%) and youth health (8.8%).

Midwives

In 2024, there were 111 Pacific midwives (making up 3.3% of the total midwifery workforce). Of Pacific midwives in 2024, 37.6% were Samoan (47) and 24.8% were Cook Islanders (31).

Allied health professions

Relatively low numbers of Pacific peoples worked in allied health professions in 2024. The largest groups of Pacific health care workers in allied health were medical laboratory scientists and technicians (150 – 3.4% of the workforce), health social workers (149 – 8.2% of the workforce), physiotherapists (112 – 1.9% of the workforce) and pharmacists (103 – 2.5% of the workforce).

Forecasts to 2034 show strong growth in the Pacific health workforce, particularly among nurses and doctors. Pacific nurses are projected to grow by 46.2% compared to 26.1% for the overall nursing workforce, while Pacific doctors are expected to grow by 43.7%, well above the 16.3% growth rate for the overall medical workforce. While projected representation for Pacific nurses (4,588 or 5.3%) and Pacific doctors (750 or 3.2%) still fall short of population parity, the positive growth rate marks important progress toward a ethnically representative and culturally responsive workforce.[5]

[5] These forecasts are based on projecting forward the average (of the past three years) rates of entry (including re-entry after a break) and exit into the workforce. They assume no change in technology or model of care, age profile (among the entry and exit cohorts) and training supply.

Data

Pacific peoples in regulated and non-regulated health care roles

There were 12,351 Pacific peoples in the health workforce in 2024.

Pacific peoples made up 5.3% of the total health (regulated and non-regulated) workforce in 2024.

The Pacific health workforce was made up of kaiāwhina/non-regulated health workers (7,605 or 61.6%) and doctors, nurses and other regulated health workers (4,746 or 38.4%).

Pacific health workers made up 3.7% of the total regulated health workforce and 7.3% of the kaiāwhina/non-regulated health workforce.

Pacific health workers overall were underrepresented in the health workforce relative to the proportion of the total population who were Pacific peoples (8.9%).

1. Data on the regulated health workforce comes from relevant regulatory authorities (e.g. Medical Council, Nursing Council, Psychologists Board).
2. These regulatory authorities employ a variety of practices in relation to the collection and reporting of ethnicity data. As a result, the counts of ‘Pacific’ ethnicity may have been conducted on different bases.
3. The ‘total Pacific’ method counts as Pacific peoples everyone who has at least one Pacific ethnic identification in one year.
4. The ‘ever-Pacific’ Pacific method counts as Pacific peoples everyone who has a Pacific ethnic identification over a number of years.
5. The ‘prioritised’ method is the same as 'total Pacific' except that it excludes those who also have Māori ethnic identification.
6. Data on the kaiawhina/unregulated health workforce may be incomplete because there are no comprehensive registries for the occupations that make up this workforce.
7. The number of Pacific medical doctors shown in this table (522) includes individuals who were identified as Pacific and who also identify as Māori. It is higher than the number stated on the Medical Council of New Zealand website (468 as at 31 December 2024) because that number excludes Pacific people who also identify as Māori.
8. These numbers refer to professionals with annual practising certificates (APCs) issued by the relevant regulatory authority.

Number of medical doctors

The number of Pacific medical doctors has more than tripled in the past two decades, but Pacific peoples made up around only one in 40 medical doctors in 2024.

Pacific medical doctors (522) are the second largest workforce group in the regulated Pacific health workforce.

The number of Pacific medical doctors was 3.6 times higher in 2024 compared to 2005, when there were 131 Pacific medical doctors.

The proportion of all doctors of Pacific ethnicity increased from 1.5% in 2005 to between 2.4% and 2.6% (depending on the methodology used) in 2024.

Pacific peoples are still significantly underrepresented in the medical workforce, given that Pacific peoples make up 8.9% of the total New Zealand population.

Note that the number of Pacific medical doctors shown in these charts and those on the following pages differ from those presented elsewhere in this report, because the relevant data related to the 2023 year only.

1. Data from 2014 based on registration data. Prior data based on workforce survey responses.
2. The number of Pacific Medical Doctors for the period 2005 to 2023 is an approximation based on the percentage share of the workforce. Because of rounding, the actual number may vary slightly.
3. The number provided for 2024 (Figure 2) is current to 31 December 2024.
4. The number of Pacific medical doctors reported in this table is based on Medical Council of New Zealand data. This data uses prioritised ethnicity, which excludes Pacific peoples who also identify as Māori.
5. Other counts of Pacific medical doctors reported in this document use total response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group.
6. The number provided for 2024 (Figure 2a) is current to 30 September 2024 and is the actual number of Pacific registered medical doctors.
7. This data uses prioritised ethnicity, which excludes Pacific peoples who also identify as Māori.

Pacific medical doctors by region

More than half of Pacific medical doctors worked in Auckland in 2023.

More than half (264 or 53.1%) of Pacific medical doctors worked in Auckland in 2023, making up 4.2% of the medical doctor workforce in the Auckland region.

The distribution of Pacific medical doctors in other parts of the country generally reflected the distribution of the wider Pacific population, although the numbers in each region were modest.

1. Districts are geographical areas based on address or other location information for each practitioner. Location information may refer to home or work and there may be multiple locations. Address information is often not precise enough to distinguish between regions within greater Auckland and Wellington, so regions have been aggregated together.
2. The system counts all the Pacific doctors in Counties Manukau, Te Toka Tumai – Auckland, and Waitemata under the Te Toka Tumai – Auckland district.
3. Other districts: Nelson Marlborough, South Canterbury, Tairāwhiti, Taranaki, Wairarapa, West Coast. We are unable to provide the actual number of Pacific doctors within these districts due to confidentiality purposes as they are less than 5 and may be easily identifiable.
4. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the sum of percentages may exceed 100%, and counts may exceed the total number of respondents. *Excludes anyone who also identified as Indian.
5. These data are current to 31 December 2023 so differ from other data about medical doctors presented in this report.

Ethnicity of Pacific medical doctors

Samoan doctors made up the largest number of Pacific doctors in 2023 (37.2% or 185).

Other ethnic groups represented in the medical workforce were Tongans (20.5% or 102), Fijians (19.9% or 99), Cook Islanders (14.9% or 74), Niueans (6.8% or 34) and Tokelauans (1.2% or 6).

There were 34 (6.8% of the total) who identified with Pacific peoples categorised as ‘Other Pacific peoples’.

1. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the sum of percentages may exceed 100%, and counts may exceed the total number of respondents.
2. Adding the ethnic group numbers in the table above gives a total (534) greater than the total number of people and adding the percentages gives a total (107.4%) greater than 100%.
3. The number of Pacific medical doctors with both Fijian and Indian recorded as their ethnicity was 34. This may indicate some misclassification of Fijian Indians in the indigenous Fijian ethnic group.
4. Numbers represent all Pacific doctors with an annual practising certificate, not just employed by Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora.

Pacific medical doctors, by specialist status

Most Pacific medical doctors in 2023 were non-specialists (either in training or working as medical officers without vocational registration).

In 2023, 297 (59.8%) Pacific medical doctors did not have vocational registration (specialist status), including those who were undertaking specialised training as registrars in 2023.

Among those with a primary speciality (200), almost half (92 or 46.0%) were general practice specialists. Pacific peoples made up 2.4% of general practice specialists in 2023.

Of the remaining 33 medical specialities, 14 had five or fewer Pacific medical specialists, 13 had no Pacific medical specialists, and the largest number of specialists in the remaining six was 13.

Specialties with no Pacific doctors were cardiothoracic surgery, clinical genetics, dermatology, family planning and reproductive health, medical administration, musculoskeletal medicine, neurosurgery, occupational medicine, palliative medicine, rehabilitation medicine, rural hospital medicine, sexual health medicine and sports and exercise medicine.

1. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the sum of percentages may exceed 100%, and counts may exceed the total number of respondents.
2. Other specialties with 1–4 Pacific doctors each: Emergency Medicine, Intensive Care Medicine, Ophthalmology, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, Paediatric Surgery, Pain Medicine, Pathology, Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery, Radiation Oncology, Urology, Vascular Surgery.
3. Specialties with no Pacific doctors: Cardiothoracic Surgery, Clinical Genetics, Dermatology, Family Planning & Reproductive Health, Medical Administration, Musculoskeletal Medicine, Neurosurgery, Occupational Medicine, Palliative Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine, Rural Hospital Medicine, Sexual Health Medicine, Sports and Exercise Medicine.
4. Excludes those whose only Pacific identification is Fijian.
5. Current as of 31 December 2023.

Number of Pacific nurses

Pacific nurses made up 69% of the Pacific peoples regulated health workforce and 4.5% of the total nursing workforce in 2024.

Pacific nurses were the largest regulated workforce group in the Pacific health workforce in 2024.

In 2023, the Nursing Council of New Zealand reported that there were 2,431 Pacific registered nurses, 178 Pacific enrolled nurses and 12 Pacific nurse practitioners.

While the number of Pacific nurses increased from 1,606 or 3.4% of the total in 2013, by 2023 Pacific peoples were still significantly underrepresented in the nursing workforce relative to the size of the Pacific population (8.9%).

1. Nursing Council of New Zealand issues workforce reports periodically.
2. All other numbers were as of 31 March of the relevant year.
3. Data on the breakdown of nurses by 'type' in the 2024 year was not available at the time of writing.
4. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the sum of percentages may exceed 100%, and counts may exceed the total number of respondents.

Distribution of Pacific nurses by region

Most Pacific nurses worked in Auckland in 2023.

Just under half (1,455 or 47.4%) of Pacific nurses worked in the Auckland region.

These nurses made up 8.8% of the nursing workforce in the region. While this share was more than twice the national percentage (4.2%), it was still well below the proportion of the Auckland population who were Pacific peoples (15.2%).

There were 358 Pacific nurses in the Wellington region and 158 in the Waikato region. All other regions had fewer than 100 Pacific nurses.

1. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the sum of percentages may exceed 100%, and counts may exceed the total number of respondents.
2. These numbers are for main practice settings only – many nurses also have a secondary practice setting that they work in.
3. Nurses with unspecified practice settings are mainly recently registered nurses who may not yet have employment and hence no practice setting.

Pacific nurses by ethnicity

Most Pacific nurses were Fijian (847or 32.3%) or Sāmoan (806 or 30.8%) in 2023.

Other ethnic groups represented in the nursing workforce were Tongan (467 or 17.8%), Cook Islanders (260 or 9.9%), Niuean (127 or 4.8%) and Tokelauan (94 or 3.6%).

Other Pacific peoples accounted for 196 or 7.4%.

1. All nurses.
2. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the sum of percentages may exceed 100%, and counts may exceed the total number of respondents.
3. Two in five (40.1%) of Pacific nurses (including nurse practitioners, enrolled nurses and registered nurses) reported a non-Pacific ethnicity.
4. This includes the number of Pacific nurses with Fijian and Indian recorded as their ethnicity (384). This may indicate some misclassification of Fijian Indians in the indigenous Fijian ethnic group.

Distribution of Pacific nurses by employment setting

Most Pacific nurses in 2023 were employed by Health New Zealand.

In 2023, 1,030 (or 33.6%) Pacific nurses worked in Health New Zealand hospitals.

Another 720 worked in community health services, including those run by private providers (306), Health New Zealand (290), Māori health providers (63) and Pacific health providers (61).

Key practice settings included mental health (356), primary health care (340), medical (269), surgical (216) and aged care (194).

Pacific nurses made up the largest share of all nurses working in inpatient mental health (10.3%) and youth health (8.8%).

1. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the sum of percentages may exceed 100%, and counts may exceed the total number of respondents.
2. Nurses with unspecified practice setting are mainly recently registered nurses who may not yet have employment and hence no practice setting.
3. These numbers are for main practice settings only – many nurses also have a secondary practice setting that they work in.
4. Numbers are for all nurses with an annual practising certificate and practising in NZ, not just those employed by Te Whatu Ora.
5. These numbers are for main practice settings only – many nurses also have a secondary practice setting that they work in.
6. Other practice setting* includes Family Planning/Sexual Health, Intellectually Disabled, Non-nursing health related management or admin, Other non-nursing/midwifery paid employment, working in another health profession.

Number of Pacific midwives

There were 111 Pacific midwives in 2024.

Pacific peoples made up 3.3% of all midwives registered with the Midwifery Council of New Zealand in 2024.

While the number of Pacific midwives increased from an estimated 29 or 1.1% of the total in 2010, Pacific peoples were still significantly underrepresented in the midwifery workforce relative to the size of the Pacific population.

Of midwives who identified as Pacific in 2024, 47 (37.6%) were Samoan and 31 (24.8%) were Cook Islanders.

1. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the sum of percentages may exceed 100%, and counts may exceed the total number of respondents.
2. However, the dataset excludes anyone who also identified as Indian.

Pacific peoples in allied health

There were 835 Pacific peoples working in the allied health professions in 2024.

The allied health professions with the largest number of Pacific workers were medical laboratory scientists (150), followed by health social workers (149), physiotherapists (112) and pharmacists (103).

Most (eight) of the allied health professions had fewer than 50 Pacific peoples working in them in 2024.

1. Data on professional groups comes from relevant regulatory authorities (e.g. Medical Council, Nursing Council, Psychologists Board).
2. These regulatory authorities employ a variety of practices in relation to the collection and reporting of ethnicity data. See relevant notes against Volume 2 – Figure 1.
3. Excludes the dentistry workforce.
4. Optometrists includes dispensing optometrists.

Dental workforce

There were 141 Pacific peoples working in the dentistry workforce in 2024.

Most Pacific dentistry workers were employed as dental hygienists, dental therapists or oral health therapists (80 or 5.6% of the total workforce for these occupations).

The number of Pacific dentists in 2024 was 55, accounting for 2.1% of all dentists.

The number of Pacific dental technicians was six, which accounted for 1.8% of all dental technicians.

1. Data on professional groups comes from relevant regulatory authorities (e.g. Medical Council, Nursing Council, Psychologists Board).
2. These regulatory authorities employ a variety of practices in relation to the collection and reporting of ethnicity data. See relevant notes against Volume 2 – Figure 1.

Pacific kaiāwhina/non-regulated health care workers

The largest number of Pacific health workers were in the non-regulated (kaiāwhina) workforce.

There were 7,605 Pacific kaiāwhina in 2024, accounting for 61.1% of all Pacific health workers.

Pacific kaiāwhina made up 7.3% of the total kaiāwhina workforce.

1. Data on the kaiawhina/unregulated health workforce may be incomplete because there are no comprehensive registries for the occupations that make up this workforce.
2. This data uses prioritised ethnicity, which excludes Pacific peoples who also identify as Māori.

Workforce pipeline: Pacific graduates of health-related tertiary study

There were around 1,300 Pacific graduates from health-related tertiary education at all levels in 2023.

Around half of these graduates completed programmes in nursing (46.2% or 605), including 285 who graduated with an undergraduate degree.

The other areas with significant numbers of graduates were ‘other health’ (295 or 22.5%) and public health (240 or 18.3%).

Some areas, like dental studies, radiography and optical science, had 15 or fewer graduates.

1. Data relates to students completing a formal qualification at a tertiary education provider. It excludes on-job industry training, but includes micro-credentials and formal training schemes.
2. Data includes those private training establishments that received Student Achievement Component funding, and/or had students with student loans or allowances, and/or Youth Guarantee programmes.
3. This data presents statistics relating to the predominant field(s) of study. This data looks at all the courses studied within a qualification to determine a student’s predominant field(s) of study.
4. Students who complete a qualification that can be assigned to more than one field have been counted in each field, so the sum of the various fields may not add to the total.
5. Totals also include those students with unknown values.
6. Students are counted in each type/NZQCF level they complete a qualification, so the sum of the various types/NZQCF levels may not add to the total.
7. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the counts may exceed the total number of respondents.
8. Data for 2023 should be treated as indicative as providers can continue to report completions throughout the following year.
9. Data in this table, including totals, have been rounded to the nearest 5 to protect the privacy of individuals, so the sum of individual counts may not add to the total.
10. Veterinary studies excluded.
11. Counts both domestic and international students.

Workforce pipeline: Enrolments in health-related tertiary education

There were 4,960 enrolments by Pacific peoples in health-related tertiary education at all levels in 2023.

Most enrolments were in nursing (2,120 or 42.7%), other health (1,335 or 26.9%) and public health (830 or 16.7%) programmes.

1. Data relates to students enrolled at any time during the year with a tertiary education provider in formal qualifications of greater than 0.03 EFTS (more than one week's full-time duration).
2. Data excludes all non-formal learning and on-job industry training.
3. Data includes those private training establishments that received Student Achievement Component funding, and/or had students with student loans or allowances, and/or Youth Guarantee programmes.
4. These tables present statistics relating to the predominant field(s) of study of students enrolled at tertiary education providers. This data looks at all the courses studied within a qualification to determine a student’s predominant field(s) of study. For example, you might use this data to know how many students are specialising in Information technology.
5. Students are counted in each field of study they enrol in, and once in total. This means the sum of the various fields may not add to the total.
6. Students are counted in each qualification type/NZQF level they enrol in, and once in total. This means the sum of the various levels may not add to the total.
7. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the counts may exceed the total number of respondents.
8. ‘Mixed’ relates to study that covers several of the fields in the group, where it is not possible or appropriate to separate.
9. Data in this table, including totals, have been rounded to the nearest 5 to protect the privacy of individuals, so the sum of individual counts may not add to the total.
10. Data in this table has been revised, and may differ from previously published figures.
11. Counts both domestic and international students.
12. Veterinary studies excluded.

Workforce pipeline: University Entrance and National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) Level 3 attainment

University Entrance and NCEA Level 3 achievement by Pacific learners in Year 13 trended upwards overall in the decade to 2023.

The number of Pacific learners who attained university entrance in 2023 was 1,809. This number represented 29.8% of all year 13 Pacific learners, and rose from 1,449 (or 26.2%) in 2014.

NCEA level 3 attainment was also higher. The number of Pacific year 13 learners with NCEA Level 3 was 3,665 (or 60.4% of all Pacific year 13 learners) in 2023.

This result represented an increase of 1,049 learners, or 13.1 percentage points compared to 2014.

While both university entrance and NCEA Level 3 attainment among Pacific learners was higher in 2023 compared to 2014, the highest numbers and rates were recorded in 2020; rates have declined slightly since then.

Non-Māori, non-Pacific year 13 learners obtained university entrance and NCEA Level 3 at a higher rate than Pacific learners: 55.9% and 70.9% respectively.

1. Rates reported are of the cumulative attainment rate which includes learners who may have attained the qualification (university entrance) in the current or an earlier year.
2. This dataset includes total-response ethnicity, meaning individuals can identify with more than one ethnic group. As a result, the counts may exceed the total number of respondents.