New Zealand Americans are Americans who have New Zealand ancestry. According to the 2010 surveys, there are 19,961 New Zealand Americans. Most of them are of European descent, but some hundreds are of indigenous New Zealand descent. Some 925 of those New Zealand-Americans declared they were of Tokelauan origin. The 2000 Census indicated also the existence of 1,994 people of Māori descent in US.

History

The earliest instance of Many New Zealanders coming to the United States happened during the California Gold Rush in which some went to the state of California to make their fortune and stayed there. The modern stream of New Zealanders immigrating to America came after World War II as a significant portion (although not the majority) of these immigrants were war brides, because they had married U.S. servicemen who were stationed in the Pacific theater during the war. Since the 1940s, the majority of New Zealanders who have settled in the United States came seeking higher education or employment, especially in work related to finance, import and export, and entertainment industries. Some small communities of New Zealanders have been created in the Chicago area and in the Green Bay and Madison, Wisconsin areas.

Notable people