GP Guide to Working in New Zealand
New Zealand is consistently rated as a country with one of the highest qualities of life in the world, offering a safe environment for the whole family. It is an increasingly multicultural society that appeals due to its diversity and temperate climate.
Capital City Wellington
Currency New Zealand Dollar ($NZD)
Population Approx 4.5 million
Time GMT + 12 hours
Language Maori and English
New Zealand People and Population
There are just 4.5 million New Zealanders, scattered across 270,534 sq km: bigger than the UK with one-fourteenth the population. New Zealand is the land of extremes with sublime forests, mountains, lakes, beaches and glaziers. It is relatively easy to travel around with distances between different towns and cities not being too great, transport networks are well developed with airports throughout the country and well maintained highways.
New Zealand Cost of Living
Not only is New Zealand a great place to live it also has a very reasonable cost of living. One independent international survey ranked Auckland 58th in the world in terms of its cost of living, and Wellington 75th, far better than other major cities. Such cities included Hong Kong (3), Singapore (4), New York (16), London (25), Sydney (26), Melbourne (33) and Guangzhou (31) – showing that comparatively, New Zealand’s major metropolitan areas are more affordable. See our more detailed blog on NZ cost of living for GPs For an up to date costs of different items please see here
New Zealand is rated highly in many global surveys
Rated 2nd in the world for work / life balance by HSBC 2015 Expat surveyThe same survey voted New Zealand first for Quality of LifeMercer ranked Auckland as the third best city in the world for Quality of life in 2015Wellington came in 12th in the same surveyThe UN ranks New Zealand 9th out of 187 countries on the 2015 Human Development IndexHSBC Expat Explorer index ranked New Zealand 6th in the world for expats out of over 100 countries
Further Reading
If you’d like to find out more about living and working in New Zealand or to discuss any of the fantastic GP jobs we have please do get in touch.
