Ethnicity, Language, & Religion of New Zealand
Ethnicity
About 60% of New Zealand's population is ethnically European (these people are sometimes referred to as Pākehā), primarily consisting of ethnicities from Scotland and other parts of the British Isles. The Maori make up about 8% of the population; these people were the first settlers of the islands and are ethnically Polynesian. Oddly, the ancestors of the Maori arrived from eastern Polynesia and their closest relatives are from this region, including French Polynesia and the Cook Islands.
There is a growing Asian population in New Zealand, primarily people from the Far East, as Asians now make up almost 10% of the population. The rest of the population tends to consist of numerous ethnic groups or are a combination of the above mentioned people.
Language
English and Maori are official languages in New Zealand, but English tends to be the language of communication across groups and most of the country's population are native English speakers. In addition to these languages there are multiple other languages spoken in New Zealand, most of which are spoken by first or second generation immigrants in the home. These languages vary drastically, but some of the more common are Samoan, French, Hindi, and Mandarin.