The Waitākere ward is an electoral ward of Auckland Council in New Zealand. It covers part of the old Waitakere City lying west of a line from Te Atatū Peninsula to Titirangi.
The ward elects two councillors, currently Shane Henderson and Ken Turner, who have oversight of its two local boards, Henderson-Massey and Waitākere Ranges.
Demographics Waitākere ward covers and had an estimated population of as of with a population density of people per km2.
Waitākere ward had a population of 178,677 in the 2023 New Zealand census, an increase of 8,163 people (4.8%) since the 2018 census, and an increase of 22,596 people (14.5%) since the 2013 census. There were 88,563 males, 89,445 females and 666 people of other genders in 57,267 dwellings. 3.4% of people identified as LGBTIQ+. The median age was 35.2 years (compared with 38.1 years nationally). There were 37,266 people (20.9%) aged under 15 years, 35,844 (20.1%) aged 15 to 29, 85,176 (47.7%) aged 30 to 64, and 20,391 (11.4%) aged 65 or older.
People could identify as more than one ethnicity. The results were 51.6% European (Pākehā); 16.8% Māori; 19.5% Pasifika; 27.4% Asian; 2.7% Middle Eastern, Latin American and African New Zealanders (MELAA); and 2.0% other, which includes people giving their ethnicity as "New Zealander". English was spoken by 92.7%, Māori language by 3.7%, Samoan by 5.3%, and other languages by 25.4%. No language could be spoken by 2.7% (e.g. too young to talk). New Zealand Sign Language was known by 0.5%. The percentage of people born overseas was 37.4, compared with 28.8% nationally.
Religious affiliations were 34.4% Christian, 5.2% Hindu, 2.9% Islam, 1.0% Māori religious beliefs, 1.7% Buddhist, 0.5% New Age, 0.1% Jewish, and 1.6% other religions. People who answered that they had no religion were 46.3%, and 6.5% of people did not answer the census question.
Of those at least 15 years old, 37,788 (26.7%) people had a bachelor's or higher degree, 65,097 (46.0%) had a post-high school certificate or diploma, and 38,526 (27.2%) people exclusively held high school qualifications. The median income was $43,700, compared with $41,500 nationally. 16,623 people (11.8%) earned over $100,000 compared to 12.1% nationally. The employment status of those at least 15 was that 76,422 (54.0%) people were employed full-time, 16,632 (11.8%) were part-time, and 5,310 (3.8%) were unemployed.
Councillors
ElectionCouncillors ElectedAffiliationVotesNotes 20101Penny HulseIndependent18125Hulse was appointed Deputy Mayor of Auckland by mayor Len Brown, and served alongside him until he stepped down. She was replaced by Bill Cashmore upon Phil Goff becoming Mayor in 2016.2Sandra ConeyBest for the West13451 20131Penny HulseWest at Heart194982Linda CooperIndependent11437 20161Penny HulseWest at Heart19935Hulse retired from Auckland Council at the 2019 elections.2Linda CooperIndependent12442 20191Linda CooperIndependent147502Shane HendersonLabour14695 20221Shane HendersonLabour165452Ken TurnerWestWards14654 Seat gained from Linda Cooper by 659 votes 20251Shane HendersonLabour145892Ken TurnerWestWards9073
Election results Election results for the Waitākere ward:
2025 { class="wikitable" style="text-align:right" +Waitākere ward ! colspan="2" style="width:130px" Affiliation ! style="width:17em" Candidate ! style="width:5em" Votes ! style="width:3.5em" % - style="background:" style="text-align:left" Labour style="text-align:left" Shane Henderson 14,589
style="text-align:left" WestWards style="text-align:left" Ken Turner 9,073
style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Linda Cooper 6,852
style="text-align:left" Future West style="text-align:left" Jess Rose 6,430
style="text-align:left" WestWards style="text-align:left" Sunil Kaushal 6,202
style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Ingrid Papau 5,011
style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Peter Chan 4,556
style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Jim Cornes 4,481
style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Serge Roud 2,498
style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Kay Luv 2,287
style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Michael Coote 2,190
style="text-align:left" Independent style="text-align:left" Seamus Lal 1,545
- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right" Informal 97
- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right" Blank 688
- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right" Turnout
- ! colspan="3" style="text-align:right" Registered 127,687 style="background:lightgrey"
colspan="4" style="text-align:left;" Labour hold
colspan="4" style="text-align:left;" WestWards hold - colspan="5" style="background:#eaecf0;text-align:left;padding-bottom:0px;padding-top:0px" incumbent }
2022
+Waitākere WardAffiliationCandidateVotes%LabourShane Henderson16,54541.40 WestWardsKen Turner14,65436.67IndependentLinda Cooper13,99535.02 WestWardsShawn Blanchfield8,47221.20IndependentPeter Chan8,19920.52IndependentTua Schuster3,2788.20IndependentAimela Hansen2,6486.63IndependentMichael Coote2,5506.38Informal610.15Blank1,5283.82Turnout39,959
2016 election results
NameAffiliationVotes%1Penny HulseIndependent - West at Heart19,93528.2%2Linda CooperIndependent12,44217.6%Greg PreslandLabour11,74416.6%Peter ChanIndependent7,42710.5%Ken TurnerWestWards5,1297.3%David RankinIndependent4,5206.4%John RiddellIndependent3,2304.6%Rochelle GormlyIndependent2,5883.7%JB WoolstonUnited Future1,7792.5%Blank1,8022.6%Informal690.1%Turnout70,665
References
External links Waitākere ward, Auckland Council