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Hamilton mayor Julie Hardaker - Source: ONE News
Waikato has lost more residents in the past year than anywhere in New Zealand - including quake-ravaged Canterbury.
The latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show net permanent migration for the Waikato region at minus 1588 people for the financial year 2010-11 - the largest loss in the country.
The region received 4565 new arrivals, but 6153 left.
Canterbury came in second, with minus 1548 people, followed by Bay of Plenty (minus 1340), Northland (minus 921) and Hawke's Bay (minus 780).
Auckland had the biggest growth, with an extra 6220 people arriving.
It's the Waikato's worst statistic since the exodus of 2000-2001 when 2050 people left - but Hamilton Mayor Julie Hardaker isn't fazed by the statistics, as the city's population seems to be on the rise.
"I don't see the figures are inconsistent with trends in the past; they go up and they go down, and it is just one of those blip things that happen," she said. "I don't see it as anything significant."
Hardaker said migration in Waikato was particularly affected by its two key industries - farming and students.
"Farming is traditionally a migrant type of industry, people come in and go out, same with the students ... that's what you would expect with those sorts of industries and economies."
A spokesperson for Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said he would not comment on what was happening in other regions.
The director of Waikato University's National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis, and professor of demography, Natalie Jackson, said migration was always a bit of push and pull, with young New Zealanders being pulled to better opportunities elsewhere because of the lack of jobs.
"Overall in New Zealand, net migration has dropped in 2011 to 3867 from 16,504 in 2010," Jackson said.
"What is happening in Waikato is commensurate with what is happening in the rest of the country.
"If you look at 1999-2001, Waikato lost more people than they have now."
It was not clear where those who left the Waikato were going, but statistics show there are still more Kiwis going to Australia, than vice versa - with 51,100 departures to 14,200 arrivals.
One of those was Hamilton's Jacob Tunstall, a Waikato University law graduate, who went for a holiday in Brisbane and decided to stay there.
"I got here [Australia] and realised that whether I was in New Zealand or Australia I would have to find a job and somewhere to live and seeing as I was here I started looking for a job."
Three weeks later the 27-year-old had landed a job - starting this week - doing recruitment for a marketing company, something temporary until he can find a job as a lawyer.
But it was love that moved Hamilton woman, and former office manager, Lisa Church to wing her way to Christchurch just over 12 months ago - two months before the February quake.
"My fiance got a job in Christchurch; he's from Christchurch," she said.
"I hadn't ever moved away from home so it was a good opportunity to experience something other than the Hamiltonian lifestyle. And though it was bad timing with the earthquakes, we are doing well and don't plan to move anywhere in the future."
Church, 32, said she loved living in Hamilton and didn't leave it because she didn't like it.
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