Service Description: Summary statistics showing the total number of driver licence holders by region, class stage and class type, and age bracket for the financial years 2012 to 2024.
Service ItemId: 1df7058b09674aa6b8c65650a1fe057b
Has Versioned Data: false
Max Record Count: 2000
Supported query Formats: JSON
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Description: The data in this spreadsheet should be considered in conjunction with the caveats provided below:
The information was extracted from the Driver Licence Register (DLR) and is current as at 24 June 2026.
The data is limited to licence holders with a standard or diplomatic licence type as at 24 June 2026.
Updated annually, the data is limited to current licence holders with the following current class(es) held as at 1 July, 2010-2024:
- Class 1 (Motor Cars and Light Motor Vehicles) licence – learner, restricted and full
- Class 6 (Motorcycles, Moped or ATV) – learner, restricted and full
The data is a distinct count of individuals as at 1 July each year. An individual will be included in more than one count if both Class 1 and Class 6 are held.
The age group of a licence holder is calculated as at 1 July each year from the date of birth recorded on DLR as at 14 April 2025.
The column “Financial year” is the previous 1 July-30 June period. For example, as at 1 July 2012, “11/12” has been provided as the financial year.
Region is determined by the physical town or suburb against the licence holder as at 1 July. It may not reflect the licence holder’s current address.
Address fields are free text and may contain errors which leads to the incorrect region being determined.
Address fields are updated when we receive notification of a change of address from the licence holder. Notifications for a change of address may come directly from the licence holder (for example, the licence holder calling the contact centre and updating their address), or as an outcome of a transaction against the licence holder on the DLR (including the processing of an application at a driver licensing outlet with an address update).
It is important to note:
- the data does not take into consideration the physical address/location of the licence holder i.e. whether the licence holder was in New Zealand as at 1 July.
- the data does not provide the number of licence holders in New Zealand. Instead, it is the number of people with a current New Zealand driver licence (including licence holders residing overseas).
- a licence holder residing overseas may choose to provide a physical address in New Zealand.
Where the region has been unable to be determined or identified as an overseas address, the licence holder is grouped with "Misc".
To protect the privacy of individuals due to small values, the following regions have been grouped with "Misc":
- Chatham Islands
- Gisborne Region
- Tasman Region
- West Coast Region
Changes to driver licensing fees came into effect on 1 October 2023.
The minimum age to obtain a Class 1 learner licence increased from 15 years to 16 years on 1 August 2011.
Changes were made to the Class 1 restricted and full licence test on 27 February 2012.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, NZ had a 4-level Alert system in place from 21 March 2020 until this changed to a Traffic Light system from 3 December 2021 to 12 September 2022. Driver licensing and testing facilities closed over alert levels 3 and 4. Data from these periods will not align with previous trends.
Copyright Text: Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency
Spatial Reference: 102100 (3857)
Initial Extent:
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YMin: -5529394.28495841
XMax: 20398247.1497475
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Spatial Reference: 102100 (3857)
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