Reylan

"Britain's population has reached almost 62 million, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has said"

Hopefully by this time next year we will be in NZ so it will be 61,999,998!

Dewb09

room for more then

mumbee2

No make that population number for the UK

61,999,994

We hope

Justcol

thats only the people they can account for not including the illegal immigrants.
The more the merrier down here NZ needs to serioulsy increase its population if
it wants to grow as a nation.
It could easily double what its already got and still need more.

NZGrl

Yeah I just listened to Steve Wright and heard about it then read this

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...hes-nearly-62m

JohnThePom

Hi Colandros,

I'll take the bait.

What's your thinking behind this? Lot's of people move to NZ precisely because it isn't overpopulated. (Yes, I realise that's a bit hypocritical)

Why does a larger population = growth as a nation? What does that even mean? Why would anyone want NZ to become busier, more crowded and more polluted?

I realize that the worlds biggest economies (US/Germany) etc all have high populations (and do correspondingly better in sport), but other countries (India/China) had large populations long before they started to achieve any economic (or sporting) standing in the international arena. Small countries (Sweden/Norway/Switzerland) don't seem to do too badly without continually trying to expand.

It seems to me that a lot of the worlds problems are caused by this idea that never-ending 'growth' is good when it's obviously impossible in the long term and not necessarily even desirable in the short term.

WP

jmh

LOL, I assume you're taking the piss, but I'll bite too.

So you want more people in NZ so that it is more like Britain! Seriously though, immigrants generally move to where the jobs are, i.e. where most people are. Plenty of empty places in Britain with cheap housing but no jobs. Unless you can make sure the migrants to NZ are all cashed up then you won't be filling up empty spaces, but squeezing more people into populated areas and pushing up house prices.

Genesis

I hope NZ stays as it is. We are doing fine as a nation even on global terms. I too agree that loads more people does not mean a better life style. They will all take more looking after and make this wonderous country packed like most other nations. NZ's scant pop. density is one of its best attributes. Long may it stay C4million or thereabouts.

mickey_d

These countries have good industrial bases, oil, gas, steel, chemicals etc. etc.
New Zealand is to reliant on agriculture, it will be interesting to see how it fares in the future with climate change/seasonal shift, giving countries the chance to grow more & more fruits & veggies for their own use & not relying so much on countries such as New Zealand.

Jan n Neil

Colandros is spot on,
This place could easily acommodate 10 million and still be empty people create wealth and we need more of them, just to give u an example of how empty this place is me n Jan drove from ChCh to Queenstown this weekend now keep in mind this is the major holiday destination in the south island on the 1000K round trip on the only route there we did not see more than 3/400 cars (not inc any towns we passed thru) there is just nobody here
More people=more services=more money

i,d go for 20 million then cap it but it will never happen as the place is controlled by a few major companys

Neil

simonsi

Physical space isn't the only factor - do you have 5x the water supply, power supply and grid infrastructure to distribute those too?

Jan n Neil

We do, we have the capacity to feed 40 million but it all gets exported abundant water and we could soon build more houses there only made of cardboard

Neil

Justcol

There is no home market for NZ producers, almost everything goes to export
and the poor kiwi picks the scraps of whats left.
Take timber, agreements have been made with china for certain levels of nz timber.
As most is now being flogged off to the chinese the bit thats left here is now in short supply and has risen by 15%.
That price is now being passed on from the home builders to the home buyers taking new homes
even further out of the reach of many kiwis.
This is something that runs right through the nz market, most good and produce are marked for export
as the home market cannot support its own manufacturers or producers.
The reliance on a single industry here in NZ is pretty scarey.
If anything happens that causes fears in the dairy industry this country is doomed.

Robbie2010

Foot & Mouth anyone?

Wooly_Cow

Not to mention the countries mentioned have a ready accessible market of about 300 million on their door step....