Ageing North Shore: how fast is the over-65 population growing around Albany?

What this means for eye checks

• Upper Harbour gained 4,752 residents aged 65 and over in ten years. Their number grew 84.7%, while the area's whole population grew 43.4%.
• Healthify NZ's glaucoma page advises people over 60 to get their eyes checked every year; everyone counted on this page is past that age.
• Healthify NZ's macular degeneration page says everyone should have an eye health check at least every 2 years, and names increasing age as the main risk factor for age-related macular degeneration.
• Upper Harbour still has a smaller share of older residents than New Zealand overall: 13.5% of residents were 65 or older in 2023, against 16.6% nationally. The share is rising, from 10.5% in 2013.
• NVISION's adult eye examination includes a widefield retinal photo, and you can book without a referral.

How we did it

We used Stats NZ's 2023 Census tables of the census usually resident population by age, which include the 2013 and 2018 Censuses re-counted on 2023 boundaries. Stats NZ publishes them in Aotearoa Data Explorer and as open map layers; we downloaded the map-layer versions on 12 November 2026: population change by age group and local board, the same by region, and totals by topic for individuals by SA2.

"65 and over" is Stats NZ's age group "65 years and over". New Zealand totals add up every region. We placed an SA2 area in Upper Harbour when its centre point falls inside the local board boundary (25 areas).

Percentage changes, rankings and shares are our own arithmetic; our 2013 to 2018 and 2018 to 2023 changes match Stats NZ's published percentages for every local board. A separate check script downloads a different Stats NZ table (age groups by SA2) and the local board population totals again and confirms the headline figures.

Sources

• Stats NZ: 2023 Census population change by age group and local board (TALB): 2013, 2018 and 2023 Censuses, 2023 boundaries; CC BY 4.0
• Stats NZ: 2023 Census population change by age group and region: Auckland Region and New Zealand totals
• Stats NZ: 2023 Census totals by topic for individuals by SA2: 5-year age groups and median age by SA2
• Stats NZ: Aotearoa Data Explorer: the same census tables
• Healthify NZ: Glaucoma: yearly eye checks for people over 60
• Healthify NZ: Macular degeneration: eye health check at least every 2 years; age as the main risk factor

Limits

• A census counts people every five years, on one night. It does not show what happened between censuses, and people move in and out of the area.
• Stats NZ randomly rounds every count to a multiple of 3. That matters little for a local board, but SA2 counts of a few dozen people can shift by a few either way.
• The 2018 Census had a lower response rate, and Stats NZ filled gaps with government administrative data. Stats NZ re-published the 2013 and 2018 figures on 2023 boundaries; we used those.
• The Upper Harbour local board area includes Albany, Greenhithe, Hobsonville, West Harbour and Whenuapai. It does not cover the whole North Shore, and NVISION's patients come from well beyond it.
• These are population counts. They do not measure eye health, eye conditions or how many people have their eyes checked.

Cite this study

NVISION Eyecare (2026). Ageing North Shore: how fast is the over-65 population growing around Albany? Published 12 November 2026. nvision.nz/research/ageing-north-shore-eye-care

The data behind this study is in ageing-north-shore-eye-care.csv, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with credit. This is general information drawn from public data, not medical advice about your own eyes.