Editing Māori language (section)

== Geographic distribution ==
[[File:TeReoMaori2013.png|thumb|Speakers of Māori according to the 2013 census:
{{legend|#fef0d9|<&nbsp;5%}}
{{legend|#fdd8a4|5–10%}}
{{legend|#fcb779|10–20%}}
{{legend|#fc8d59|20–30%}}
{{legend|#eb603f|30–40%}}
{{legend|#d33121|40–50%}}
{{legend|#a50c0c|>&nbsp;50%}}]]
Nearly all speakers are ethnic Māori residents of New Zealand. Estimates of the number of speakers vary: the 1996 census reported 160,000,<ref name=quickstats>{{cite web|url=http://www.stats.govt.nz/Census/2006CensusHomePage/QuickStats/quickstats-about-a-subject/maori.aspx|title=QuickStats About Māori|year=2006|publisher=Statistics New Zealand|access-date=14 November 2007|archive-date=21 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921041623/http://www.stats.govt.nz/census/2006censushomepage/quickstats/quickstats-about-a-subject/maori.aspx|url-status=live}} (revised 2007)</ref> while a 1995 national survey reported about 10,000 "very fluent" adult speakers.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/issues_e/hist/index.shtml |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20020102121816/http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/issues_e/hist/index.shtml |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2 January 2002 |title= Māori Language Issues – Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori |publisher=Māori Language Commission |access-date= 12 February 2011 }}</ref>
As reported in the 2013 national census, only 21.3% of self-identified Māori had a conversational knowledge of the language, and only around 6.5% of those speakers, 1.4% of the total Māori population, spoke the Māori language only. This percentage has been in decline in recent years, from around a quarter of the population{{when|date=April 2022}} to 21%. In the same census, Māori speakers were 3.7% of the total population.<ref name="Māori language speakers">{{cite web |title= Māori language speakers |url= http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Culture%20and%20identity/maori-lang-speakers.aspx |publisher= [[Statistics New Zealand]] |access-date= 2 September 2017 |date= 2013 |archive-date= 2 September 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170902012438/http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/snapshots-of-nz/nz-social-indicators/Home/Culture%20and%20identity/maori-lang-speakers.aspx |url-status= live }}</ref>

The level of competence of self-professed Māori speakers varies from minimal to total. Statistics have not been gathered for the prevalence of different levels of competence. Only a minority of self-professed speakers use Māori as their main language at home.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal|last=Albury|first=Nathan|date=2016|title=Defining Māori language revitalisation: A project in folk linguistics|journal=Journal of Sociolinguistics|volume=20|issue=3|pages=287–311|doi=10.1111/josl.12183|postscript=none|hdl=10852/58904|hdl-access=free}}, p.&nbsp;301.</ref> The rest use only a few words or phrases ([[Passive speakers (language)|passive]] bilingualism).{{citation needed|date=February 2020}}

Māori {{as of | 2008 | alt = still}} is a community language in some predominantly Māori settlements in the [[Northland Region|Northland]], [[Te Urewera|Urewera]] and [[East Cape]] areas. {{lang|mi|[[Kōhanga reo]]}} Māori-immersion kindergartens throughout New Zealand use Māori exclusively.<ref name=":3" />

Urbanisation after the Second World War led to widespread language shift from Māori predominance (with Māori the primary language of the rural {{lang|mi|[[whānau]]}}) to English predominance (English serving as the primary language in the {{lang|mi|[[Pākehā]]}} cities). Therefore, Māori speakers almost always communicate bilingually, with [[New Zealand English]] as either their first or second language. Only around 9,000 people speak only in Māori.<ref name=":4" />

In the 2023 school year, around 7.2% of primary and secondary school students in New Zealand were taught fully or partially in Māori. An additional 24.4% were formally taught Māori as an additional language, and 37.1% were taught Māori informally. However, very few students pass through the New Zealand education system without any Māori language education. For example, only 2.1% of students in Year 1 (aged 5) did not receive any Māori language education in 2023.<ref name=":11" />

The use of the Māori language in the Māori diaspora is far lower than in New Zealand itself. Census data from Australia show it as the home language of 11,747, just 8.2% of the total Australian Māori population in 2016.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ABS_C16_T09_SA|title=Census 2016, Language spoken at home by Sex (SA2+)|website=Australian Bureau of Statistics|access-date=28 October 2017|archive-date=26 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181226044803/http://stat.data.abs.gov.au/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ABS_C16_T09_SA|url-status=live}}</ref>