Recreation Statistics
The Size of the Community we Represent
We work on behalf of 4.6 million Kiwis, new New Zealanders and visitors to Aotearoa/New Zealand throughout our country.
The majority enjoy participation in water-based sport, recreation and commercial activities. Each year there are 20 million visits to public swimming pools, 3.5 million people visit beaches, 4.5 million go boating, more than 1.1 million participate in swimming and more than 700,000 go fishing.
New Zealand’s coastline is the 10th longest in the world, measuring about 14,000km. The total length of the country’s rivers is more than 180,000km and there are 3820 lakes that have a surface area larger than a hectare.
Rivers are predominantly unpatrolled, cold, deep and fast-flowing. They are fed from mountains and hill country with high rainfall. Danger signs are limited in number. Survival due to accidental immersion or a swimmer getting into difficulty in these waters is slim.
New Zealand’s environment and weather patterns can be unpredictable and various, and the temperature of our sea, lakes and rivers ranges from about 8-16C in winter to about 14-20C in summer.