This is a commonly heard statement about New Zealand, frequently in anticipation of yet another sheep joke.
This is not a myth: the information is now out of date
First the question of how many people live in New Zealand: the population passed the 4 million mark some time in 2003. In fact, the population clock put the event precisely at 5.30 pm on Thursday 24 April 2003. By 31 March, 2007, the estimated resident population reached 4.18 million people.
But do we know how many sheep live here? The figure of 60 million is one that is still heard. How accurate is this number? Is there still a ratio of 20 sheep to every person living here? And if not, what is the sheep-person ratio?
According to the latest Agricultural Production statistics, released by Statistics New Zealand's Agricultural Production team, there were 40.1 million estimated resident sheep at 30 June 2006, which means that the sheep-person ratio has halved in the last 20 years, and now stands at 10 sheep per person.
However, to put this in an international context, New Zealand's ratio is still twice as high as Australia's, which is currently less than five sheep per person. As with New Zealand, this is due to declining sheep numbers and a growing human population. There were 132.6 million sheep in Australia in 1994, but this had fallen to 101.3 million a decade later, with the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics's Agricultural Census putting the figure at 91.9 million sheep at 30 June 2006 - the lowest estimate since 1925 (ABS 2007). In comparison, the Australian population grew from 18.0 million in 1994 to 20.7 million in September 2006.
A bit of sheep history ...
The Agricultural Production Survey also tells us that the peak in New Zealand sheep numbers was reached in 1982, with a total of 70.3 million sheep. In the same year, there were 3.18 million people in New Zealand, which works out to 22 sheep per person. Sheep numbers have gradually declined since the mid 1980s, due to factors such as depressed wool prices, droughts in the 1990s, and competition from other land-intensive farming activities (e.g. dairy and forestry). A low of 39.3 million sheep was recorded in 2004. But, sheep numbers have begun to stabilise, and in the most recent years, there has been population growth.
Some sheep facts from An Encyclopedia of New Zealand 1966 for the historians among us...
- New Zealand's first sheep were set ashore by Captain Cook on 20 May 1773.
- Rapid sheep population growth in the 1850s and 1860s was mostly attributable to permanent immigration rather than natural increase. In 1864 alone, 13,000 sheep arrived in Canterbury from Australia. Droughts meant that sheep could always be bought cheaply from Australia. Drought continues to affect Australian farmers and sheep numbers.
- The first shipment of frozen lamb and mutton sailed to London from Port Chalmers aboard the Dunedin in 1882.
Provided by Statistics New Zealand, 7 May 2007.