David Farrar: The breakdown of the 55th Parliament of New Zealand

There are provisionally 131 MPs, a record high, in the 55th Parliament of New Zealand. There are 71 electorate MPs and 60 list MPs.

On Patreon, I have done a detailed analysis of the breakdown of not just Parliament as a whole, but for each party. This answers questions like:

• Which party is only 29% male?
• Which party is 58% Māori and Pacific?
• Which party is 43% under 40?
• Which two parties have no MPs from rural or small town NZ?
• Which party has 31% of its MPs Rainbow?
• Who is now the Father of the House? (It’s Chris Hipkins)

So the full data is paywalled, but the toppling summary data is below.

57% of MPs are male and 43% female. This compares to 49% and 51% respectively of the adult population.

The proportion of MPs who are female in recent Parliaments is:

• 2014 31%
• 2017 38%
• 2020 48%
• 2023 44%
• 2026 43%

A massive 35 MPs are Māori, which is 27% of Parliament. This is much much higher than the 15% of the adult population. 8% are Asian compared to 17% of the population., 5% are Pacific vs 7% of the population.

The age breakdown is:

• 20s: 4%
• 30s: 13%
• 40s: 38%
• 50s: 28%
• 60s: 16%
• 70s: 0%
• 80s: 1%

The breakdown by area is:

• Auckland 33%
• Wellington 10%
• Christchurch 10%
• Provincial Cities 24%
• Towns/Rural 24%

77% are in the North Island and 23% in the South Island.

9% of MPs are Rainbow, compared to 4% of the adult population.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders