Urban Areas (2018)

Urban areas are statistically defined areas with no administrative or legal basis. They are characterised by high population density with many built environment features where people and buildings are located close together for residential, cultural, productive, trade, and social purposes.

Urban areas are further classified by the size of their estimated resident population:

• major urban area – 100,000 or more residents
• large urban area – 30,000–99,999 residents
• medium urban area – 10,000–29,999 residents
• small urban area – 1,000–9,999 residents.

Urban boundaries are independent of local government and other administrative boundaries, that is, an urban area may be contained within one or more local government region or administrative areas. The Richmond urban area, which is mainly in the Tasman District, is the only urban area that crosses territorial authority boundaries, and includes an SA2 that is in the Nelson City territorial authority.