New Zealand Americans are

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

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 Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population: 2010 Census, 2010 Census Briefs, United States Bureau of the Census, May 2012
/ref> The 2000 Census indicated also the existence of 1,994 people of

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

descent in US.

History

Many New Zealanders came to the United States after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A significant portion (although not the majority) of these immigrants were

war bride War brides are women who married military personnel from other countries in times of war or during military occupations, a practice that occurred in great frequency during World War I and World War II. Among the largest and best documented examp ...

s, because they had married U.S. servicemen who were stationed in the

Pacific theater The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

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 (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

area and in the Green Bay and

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

areas.Encyclopedia of Chicago: New Zealand in Chicago
Posted by Daniel Greene. Retrieved September 29, 2012, to 1:29 pm.

Notable people

* Alex Aiono - singer, producer ( New Zealander father) * Peter Arnett - TV presenter (Originally from

Riverton, New Zealand Riverton / Aparima is a small town west of Invercargill and located on the south-eastern shorelines of the Jacobs River Estuary. This is formed by the Aparima and Pourakino rivers, leading through a narrow outflow channel into Foveaux Strait ...

) * Kerry Bishé - actress (Originally from

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 ...

) * Huntley Campbell - philosopher * Ray Comfort - fundamentalist Christian evangelist * Rachel Hunter - model, actress *

Phil Keoghan Philip John Keoghan ( ; born 31 May 1967) is a New Zealand television personality, best known for hosting the American version of ''The Amazing Race'' on CBS, since its 2001 debut. He is the creator and host of ''No Opportunity Wasted'', whic ...

- host of ''

The Amazing Race ''The Amazing Race'' is an adventure reality game show franchise in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with other teams. The ''Race'' is split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in forei ...

'' *

Stefania LaVie Owen Stefania LaVie Owen is a New Zealand-American actress. She is known for her roles as Puddle Kadubic in the television series ''Running Wilde'' and as Dorrit Bradshaw in the teen drama television series '' The Carrie Diaries''. She starred as Mel ...

- actress *

Sean Marks Sean Andrew Marks (born 23 August 1975) is a New Zealand-American basketball executive and former player and coach who is the general manager and alternate owner of the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was the firs ...

- retired basketball player and

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

executive * Caelin Campbell - archaeologist *

William Hayward Pickering William Hayward Pickering (24 December 1910 – 15 March 2004) was a New Zealand-born aerospace engineer who headed Pasadena, California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 22 years, retiring in 1976. He was a senior NASA luminary and pionee ...

- NASA chief *

Clive Revill Clive Revill is a New Zealand actor, best known for his performances in musical theatre and the London stage. A veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has also starred in numerous films and television programmes, often in character parts. ...

- character actor *

George Silk George Silk (17 November 1916 – 23 October 2004) was a New Zealand-born Australian photojournalist. He served as a photojournalist for ''Life'' for 30 years. Silk was born in the New Zealand town of Levin. His career as a war photographer be ...

- photojournalist *

Peter Snell Sir Peter George Snell (17 December 1938 – 12 December 2019) was a New Zealand middle-distance runner. He won three Olympic gold medals, and is the only man since 1920 to have won the 800 and 1500 metres at the same Olympics, in 1964. Snell ...

- athlete * Jeremy Waldron - university professor * Martin Henderson - actor

History

Notable people

See also

References

Further reading