migration.

'Heading for 70k'

Westpac is predicting the net gain from migration is likely to hit 70,000 in the year to June.

"Net migration has gone from strength to strength over the past few years, consistently defying the most bullish of forecasts," Westpac's chief economist Dominick Stephens said in First Impressions newsletter on the latest numbers.

"It now looks highly likely that net annual migration will pass 70,000 by June, taking the population growth rate to a post-1974 high of 2.1%."

The biggest sources of population growth from migration were India which provided a net gain of 12,568 in the year to February, followed by China and Hong Kong 10,362, Philippines 5212, the UK, 3666, France 3070 and Germany 3025.

The biggest growth over the last two years has come from India and thePhilippines, with the net gain form both of those countries more than doubling over the last two years, and from China with the net gain from that country up by 58% over the last two years.

There was also a net gain of 1606 people from Australia in the year to February, compared to a net loss of 14,998 people across the Tasman two years previously.

This country had a net loss of 190 New Zealand citizens in the month of February and a net gain of 6150 citizens from other countries.

The biggest destination for incoming migrants remains Auckland, with the city's population increasing by at least 31,035 in the year to February.

However there were another 15,620 net arrivals that did not state where they intended to lived and it's