Former leader Ardern has left New Zealand. She’s not the only one

By Laura Sharman, CNN

(CNN) — Twenty years of memories spilled across Jacinda Thorn’s yard.

Teddy bears and textbooks, camping gear stacked against her husband’s drum kit, a jumble of whisks and frying pans catching the morning sun.

With just five suitcases and their Shih Tzu Bubbles in tow, the family – Thorn, 43, husband Blair, 44, and their children Eva and Chase – swapped their home in New Zealand’s capital for a place in Melbourne – a third larger at the same price.

“I never thought I’d live outside of Wellington, let alone New Zealand,” she told CNN from Australia, two years on. “I still love it, but our family is now thriving and life has a whole new sense of adventure and ease.”

New Zealand, a picturesque nation in the South Pacific, consistently ranks among the countries people most want to move to, and has become an attractive bolthole for wealthy Americans seeking a safe haven in an unstable world.

But it’s shedding its own people at near-record levels.

Over the past four years, the number of New Zealanders aged 30-50 emigrating has more than doubled – from 18,000 to 43,000 – fueled by rising living costs and a weakening job market, demographers told CNN.

Thorn’s more famous namesake, former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, recently became the unlikely face of this exodus. The 45-year-old’s office confirmed last week that she and her family have relocated to Sydney, after they were spotted house-hunting in the city’s affluent northern beaches.

Kiwis moving abroad is not uncommon, and more Kiwis generally are choosing to leave than before; in the year ending November 2025, almost 122,000 people emigrated, a 4% jump from the previous year and higher than a previous spike in 2012.

But traditionally it’s been those in their 20s packing up their lives and moving to London or Australia to work and travel for a few years. There is even a nickname for it locally – doing your “Big OE,” or Overseas Experience.

While these young adults remain the largest group heading abroad, mid-lifers, like Ardern, are now the fastest-growing segment, with retirees increasingly joining them, according to government data.

“It’s quite an unusual trend,” said economist Brad Olsen, chief executive and principal economist at Infometrics Ltd. “It’s only when you have those much tougher economic times that you generally see a net outflow of groups over 40.”

This 30s-to-50s age group stands out because its members are often moving their “center of gravity,” leaving behind established careers, networks and family ties, says sociologist Paul Spoonley, distinguished professor emeritus at Massey University in New Zealand.

“So the decision to migrate needs a very strong economic imperative to overcome that.”

The Thorn family, for their part, is reaping the rewards after Blair discovered his data engineer salary would jump by 50% in Australia, where Kiwis get automatic work and residency rights.

Eva, 16, and Chase, 10, are excelling at school and the family is saving big. Their weekly grocery bill has dropped from the equivalent of about $400 to $267; fuel and public transport are 40% cheaper; and GP visits cost 25% less – with same-day appointments replacing week-long waits.

CNN spoke with more than a dozen New Zealanders making the leap abroad mid-career – a family of four settling in England, another thriving in Scotland and a woman who calls Spain home after brief stays in Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Turkey.

Others have started afresh in the US, particularly in urban hubs like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.

Darren Eckford landed a role to set up an overseas arm of a New Zealand charity in the United Kingdom and relocated with his partner and two children just three weeks later, aged 33.

He is now head of learning and organizational development at CIWEM, a professional body in the water and environment sector.

“Traditional ‘Kiwi’ skillsets which were in rich supply back home, were in high demand in the UK,” Eckford told CNN. “And we were much closer to buying a family home if I packed up my savings and moved it to the UK.”

New Zealand has been plagued by a stagnant economy for two years, with negative growth in the year to September 2025 and unemployment hitting a decade high in recent months.

Its housing market has also crashed, with major centers Auckland and Wellington suffering among their worst slumps in history, following a post-pandemic surge – with prices down nearly 30% in the capital since January 2022.

“The country faces its highest unemployment rate since 2016, making jobs harder to find, especially for young and mid-career workers,” Olsen said.

In some cities, dwindling government and public-sector jobs have forced many who could previously rely on high, stable incomes to make tough decisions.

Senior policy adviser Aaron Harold and his partner, a solicitor, relocated to Australia last spring after two consecutive Christmas rounds of job cuts at their employers in Wellington made them fear for job security.

“Our wages are similar in Australia and employment law means longer probation periods, but the pros definitely outweigh the cons,” Harold, 43, told CNN.

“Career opportunities are better here and there is more choice. We also enjoy city life and the warmer weather.”

Almost 60% of leavers head to Australia, whose government estimates 670,000 Kiwi citizens now live there – equivalent to 12.5% of New Zealand’s current population.

The unemployment rate is lower at 4.2% compared with New Zealand’s 5.4%, while the median weekly income for full-time workers is 37% higher – the equivalent of $1,451 in Australia versus $912 in New Zealand, according to 2025 data from Stats NZ and the Australian Statistics Bureau.

Mark Berger, head of NZRelo, which helps Kiwis move across the Tasman Sea, said the biggest shift he’s observed is in people’s motivations.

“Kiwis are not moving for a few years of better pay anymore,” he told CNN. “They’re moving permanently to rebuild their lives… driven by hope for stability, opportunity and fairness.”

Leading the charge are essential workers like nurses, police officers, teachers and tradespeople – who for years have been targeted by Australian recruitment campaigns – as well as remote professionals drawn to “lifestyle regions” like Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, Berger said.

New Zealand still attracts more migrants than it loses, with official figures showing a net gain of 13,700 in the past year.

But the gap is closing – leading to the slowest population growth in 12 years – and it’s not a straightforward swap, Olsen said.

“It’s a much bigger turnover,” he added, noting that this “churn” can sap productivity as new arrivals need time to adjust while departing mid-career professionals often take decades of experience and institutional knowledge with them.

And as New Zealand’s population ages, it will be increasingly difficult to replace retiring workers unless the country can retain or lure back the 30-to-50s, Olsen added.

“If we have fewer young people coming in, keeping that prime working age group in the middle will be vital to keeping New Zealand’s economic motor turning.”

Spoonley said the departures are eroding “the quantum of talent New Zealand that is very good at producing,” and raised the question “are they ever going to be enticed back?”

Meanwhile current trends of people arriving to New Zealand include migrants from India, the Philippines and China, “and that shift has been quite rapid,” said Olsen.

“It’s changing the demographics of New Zealand quite considerably and quite quickly,” he added.

These arrivals enter industries across the board but primarily construction, house care, IT and computer work as well as one of New Zealand’s key industries – the primary sector which includes agriculture, forestry and mining, according to Olsen.

The experience of Scott and Charlotte George, who moved to the US during the last migration spike, highlights both challenges and opportunities for those make the move for good.

After losing their home in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, the couple, then 38, relocated to Boston with their children Marcelle and Hylton, seeking better economic and educational prospects.

Scott, founder of payment system Paywaz, said they were drawn by the scale of opportunity in the US, especially for entrepreneurship, with greater capital, specialist talent, larger markets, and faster networks than in New Zealand.

But the move wasn’t without its challenges, including limited access to capital as immigrants and the need to build a professional track record in a system where credit history and residency length matter.

“The biggest challenge has been finding our ‘fit’” he said, adding that each US state feels culturally and economically distinct.

“Being a Kiwi, and from a smaller country, can come with a lingering sense of distance. It takes deliberate effort to build community and put down long-term roots.”

For many like the Georges, identity remains at the core. Speaking to CNN, many migrants described themselves as “proudly Kiwi” as they build their lives elsewhere, balancing the benefits of life abroad with a lasting connection to home.

“Home becomes a relationship, not a postcode,” George added. “You realize you’re carrying your country with you in your accent, your values, your humor and the way you show up.”

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