Waikawa Beach is a small settlement in the

Horowhenua District Horowhenua District is a territorial authority district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, administered by Horowhenua District Council. Located north of Wellington and Kapiti, it stretches from slightly north of the town of ...

of the Manawatū-Whanganui region of

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 ...

's North Island. It is located on the

South Taranaki Bight The South Taranaki Bight is a large bay on the west coast of New Zealand, south of Taranaki, west of the Manawatu, north and west of the western entrance of Cook Strait and north of the South Island. The name is sometimes used for a much smaller ...

at the mouth of Waikawa Stream, 7.5 kilometres northwest of

Manakau Manakau is a settlement in the Horowhenua District, at the boundary of the Manawatū-Whanganui and Wellington regions of New Zealand's North Island. It lies 8 km north of Otaki and 12 km south of Levin, and is connected to both vi ...

, and 19 kilometres southwest of Levin, both distances being by road. Hank Edwards Reserve is a small park adjacent to a footpath over Waikawa Stream. Erosion near the stream mouth has been a problem since the 1930s and particularly from February 2018.

Demographics

Waikawa Beach is defined by Statistics New Zealand as a rural settlement and covers . It is part of the wider Waikawa statistical area, which covers . The population of Waikawa Beach was 132 in 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 30 (29.4%) since the 2013 census, and an increase of 18 (15.8%) since the 2006 census. There were 66 males and 63 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.05 males per female. Ethnicities were 117 people (88.6%) European/Pākehā, 21 (15.9%) Māori, and 3 (2.3%) Pacific peoples (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). Of the total population, 12 people (9.1%) were under 15 years old, 6 (4.5%) were 15–29, 78 (59.1%) were 30–64, and 36 (27.3%) were over 65.

Waikawa

Waikawa statistical area, which also includes Hokio Beach, has an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km². Waikawa (Horowhenua District) had a population of 750 at the

, an increase of 12 people (1.6%) since the 2013 census, and a decrease of 6 people (-0.8%) 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 321 households. There were 378 males and 369 females, giving a sex ratio of 1.02 males per female. The median age was 51.7 years (compared with 37.4 years nationally), with 90 people (12.0%) aged under 15 years, 114 (15.2%) aged 15 to 29, 390 (52.0%) aged 30 to 64, and 159 (21.2%) aged 65 or older. Ethnicities were 84.8% European/Pākehā, 23.2% Māori, 3.2% Pacific peoples, 1.6% Asian, and 1.6% other ethnicities (totals add to more than 100% since people could identify with multiple ethnicities). The proportion of people born overseas was 12.4%, compared with 27.1% nationally. Although some people objected to giving their religion, 56.4% had no religion, 28.8% were Christian, 0.4% were Muslim, 0.8% were Buddhist and 4.0% had other religions. Of those at least 15 years old, 93 (14.1%) people had a bachelor or higher degree, and 141 (21.4%) people had no formal qualifications. The median income was $29,700, compared with $31,800 nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 294 (44.5%) people were employed full-time, 114 (17.3%) were part-time, and 36 (5.5%) were unemployed.

References

{{Horowhenua District Populated places in Manawatū-Whanganui Horowhenua District