Brighton is a small seaside town within the city limits of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

. It is located 20 kilometres southwest from the city centre on the

Southern Scenic Route The Southern Scenic Route is a tourist highway in New Zealand linking Queenstown, Fiordland, Te Anau and the iconic Milford Road to Dunedin via, Riverton, Invercargill and The Catlins. An Australian travel magazine labelled it "one of the ...

. The town faces a small bay which includes a broad sheltered beach. Other beaches extend from here. They make the area popular for summer day trips from Dunedin. BrightonNZ1

The town was named by an early resident, Hugh Williams, after

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

in England. Brighton is connected by coastal road with the Dunedin commuter settlement of

Waldronville Waldronville is a coastal settlement on the Pacific Ocean coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Established in the 1950s as a commuter settlement, it is located to the southwest of Dunedin city centre, and lies within the city's limits. W ...

to the northeast (and from there to Dunedin itself) and with

Taieri Mouth Taieri Mouth is a small fishing village at the mouth of the Taieri River, New Zealand. Taieri Island (Moturata) lies in the ocean several hundred metres off the river's mouth. It has a white sand beach for swimming and several picnic areas. Mo ...

to the southwest. The settlement of Ocean View lies immediately to the east of Brighton, separated from it by a large bluff (simply known as "Big Rock") which juts towards the ocean to the northeast of Brighton Beach. The coast road winds around this headland on its entry to Brighton from Dunedin. At the southern end of the beach is the mouth of the Otokia Creek, a small stream which has its sources to the southwest in the coastal hills which separate the coast from the

Taieri Plains The Taieri Plain (also referred to in the plural as the Taieri Plains) is an area of fertile agricultural land to the southwest of Dunedin, in Otago, New Zealand. The plain covers an area of some 300 square kilometres, with a maximum extent of 3 ...

Demographics

Brighton covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Brighton had a population of 1,473 at the

2018 New Zealand census Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the sho ...

, an increase of 27 people (1.9%) since the 2013 census, and a decrease of 36 people (-2.4%) since the

2006 census 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

. There were 615 households. There were 756 males and 717 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.05 males per female. The median age was 44.2 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 264 people (17.9%) aged under 15 years, 213 (14.5%) aged 15 to 29, 768 (52.1%) aged 30 to 64, and 228 (15.5%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 93.5% European/Pākehā, 10.4% Māori, 1.6% Pacific peoples, 2.9% Asian, and 2.2% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 15.9%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 59.5% had no religion, 28.7% were Christian, 0.4% were Hindu, 0.2% were Buddhist and 2.6% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 243 (20.1%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 240 (19.9%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $34,400, compared with $31,800 nationally. 186 people (15.4%) earned over $70,000 compared to 17.2% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 645 (53.3%) people were employed full-time, 204 (16.9%) were part-time, and 39 (3.2%) were unemployed.

Education

Big Rock Primary School is a full primary school serving years 1 to 8 with a roll of students as of The school was created when Brighton and Ocean View schools merged in 2008.

Notable residents

* James K. Baxter (1926–1972), a poet, grew up here. * Jeff Wilson, a former New Zealand internal rugby union player and husband of Adine Wilson lived here. *

Adine Wilson Adine Rachel Wilson (née Harper, born 8 June 1979) is a former New Zealand international netball representative. Personal background Born in Hāwera, New Zealand, Wilson attended Turuturu School, Hawera Intermediate School and Hawera High Scho ...

is a New Zealand international netball player and wife of Jeff Wilson.

Notes

{{Authority control Populated places in Otago Southern Scenic Route Suburbs of Dunedin Beaches of Otago