Piarere is a locality in the

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

region of New Zealand's

North Island The North Island ( , 'the fish of Māui', historically New Ulster) is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but less populous South Island by Cook Strait. With an area of , it is the List ...

. It is situated on State Highway 29 close to its junction with

State Highway 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered S ...

, close to the shore of

Lake Karapiro Lake Karapiro () is an artificial reservoir lake on the Waikato River at Karapiro, south-east of Cambridge, New Zealand, Cambridge in New Zealand's North Island. The lake was formed in 1947 by the damming of the Waikato River to store water for ...

. The nearest towns are

Tīrau Tīrau is a small town in the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand, 50 kilometres southeast of Hamilton. The town has a population of 804 (2018 census). In the Māori language, "Tīrau" means "place of many cabbage trees." Tīrau ...

, six kilometres to the southeast,

Matamata Matamata () is a town in Waikato, New Zealand. It is located near the base of the Kaimai Ranges, and is a thriving farming area known for Thoroughbred horse breeding and training pursuits. It is part of the Matamata-Piako District, which take ...

, 10 kilometres to the northeast, and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, 10 kilometres to the northwest. The meaning of the settlement's name is uncertain, as ''piarere'' may be translated from

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

in numerous ways, but it is possibly a personal name. The Hinuera Gap, a geological feature stretching northeast of Piarere, was in prehistoric times the path of the

Waikato River The Waikato River is the longest river in New Zealand, running for through the North Island. It rises on the eastern slopes of Mount Ruapehu, joining the Tongariro River system and flowing through Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake. It th ...

, which had its outlet in the

Firth of Thames The Firth of Thames () is a large bay located in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. It is the firth of the rivers Waihou and Piako, the former of which was formerly named the Thames River, and the town of Thames lies on its south ...

. The river's course was altered to its current outflow by the massive eruption of Lake Taupo 25,000 years ago.

Demographics

Piarere locality covers . It is part of the larger Tīrau statistical area. Piarere had a population of 423 in the

2023 New Zealand census The 2023 New Zealand census, which took place on 7 March 2023, was the thirty-fifth national census in New Zealand. It implemented measures that aimed to increase the Census' effectiveness in response to the issues faced with the 2018 census, i ...

, an increase of 27 people (6.8%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 87 people (25.9%) since the 2013 census. There were 210 males and 210 females in 165 dwellings. 2.1% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. There were 105 people (24.8%) aged under 15 years, 57 (13.5%) aged 15 to 29, 189 (44.7%) aged 30 to 64, and 69 (16.3%) aged 65 or older. People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 86.5% European (

Pākehā ''Pākehā'' (or ''Pakeha''; ; ) is a Māori language, Māori-language word used in English, particularly in New Zealand. It generally means a non-Polynesians, Polynesian New Zealanders, New Zealander or more specifically a European New Zeala ...

), 14.9%

, 2.1% Pasifika, 6.4% Asian, and 1.4% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 96.5%, Māori by 2.1%, Samoan by 0.7%, and other languages by 8.5%. No language could be spoken by 2.8% (e.g. too young to talk).

New Zealand Sign Language New Zealand Sign Language or NZSL () is the main language of the deaf community in New Zealand. It became an official language of New Zealand in April 2006 under the New Zealand Sign Language Act 2006. The purpose of the act was to create rights ...

was known by 0.7%. The percentage of people born overseas was 14.9, compared with 28.8% nationally. Religious affiliations were 31.9%

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, 1.4%

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, 0.7%

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, 0.7%

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

, and 2.8% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 53.2%, and 9.2% of people did not answer the census question. Of those at least 15 years old, 69 (21.7%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 177 (55.7%) had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 78 (24.5%) people exclusively held high school qualifications. 36 people (11.3%) earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was 177 (55.7%) full-time, 60 (18.9%) part-time, and 6 (1.9%) unemployed.

References

South Waikato District Populated places in Waikato Populated places on the Waikato River {{Waikato-geo-stub