Wellington

Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range.

The Wellington urban area is the major population centre of the southern North Island, and is the seat of the Wellington Region – which in addition to the urban area covers the Kapiti Coast and Wairarapa.

The urban area includes four cities: Wellington, on the peninsula between Cook Strait and Wellington Harbour, contains the central business district and about half of Wellington’s population; Porirua on Porirua Harbour to the north is notable for its large Māori and Pacific Island communities; Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt are largely suburban areas to the northeast, together known as the Hutt Valley.

Wellington also holds the distinction of being the world’s southernmost capital city of a country.

The Wellington region accounts for over 12% of the NZ economy in employment terms, similar to Canterbury. As the seat of Government, it is primarily an urban region, with its districts in the Wairarapa providing a more rural complement.

The region has high average household incomes (and when housing costs are considered, residents have the highest incomes in New Zealand). A high proportion of its population are also employed, although its employment and population growth is somewhat less than the national average.

Wellington has a range of important national functions in line with its role as a capital city, including providing institutional connections with the rest of the world.

It has developed strengths in related sectors such as information communications and technology, finance and insurance, and business services. It is home to the head offices of

many firms in these sectors.

It also has a range of tertiary education and research institutions, including the new Callaghan Innovation and three existing Crown research institutes. As a consequence, Wellington has the highest proportion of people employed in knowledge-intensive services amongst all of New Zealand’s regions. Its residents are also better qualified than residents in other New Zealand regions.

Petroleum and coal product manufacturing made the largest contribution to growth in Wellington in the year to March 2012. The industry grew by 15.8% over the year and contributed 0.4 percentage points to the region’s total growth of 0.2%. The next largest contributor was professional, scientific and technical services which contributed 0.4 percentage points followed by mining (0.3 percentage points).

Grow Wellington – Board Member

Gerard Quinn – Chief Executive

PO Box 10 347

Wellington

P: 04 382 0099

E: gerard.quinn@growwellington.co.nz

W: www.growwellington.co.nz

Hutt City Council

Gary Craig – City Development Manager

Private Bag 31-912

Lower Hutt

P: 04 570-6920