According to the 2018 New Zealand census, there were 34,227 Punjabi-speaking individuals in the country.[1]Punjabi was the second most commonly spoken South Asian language in New Zealand after Hindi, and the 14th most common overall.[1]
New Zealand has a historical and growing Sikh community, most of whom originate from Punjab.[4][5] Punjabis were amongst the earliest immigrants from South Asia to arrive in New Zealand alongside the Gujaratis, during what was then the British Raj in the 1890s,[5][6] and some of them married local Māori women, whose offspring became known as Māori Indians.[7]