Industry statistics: How many .nz domains are there?
Have you ever wondered how many .nz domains there are on the internet? The Domain Name Commission (DNC) has the info that you’re looking for.
Their Market Data page tracks the total number of registered .nz domains (whether or not they have a website attached to them), and a few other interesting stats. The most recent data goes up to July 2025, and here’s what it’s telling us.
755,569 .nz domains #
The most recent total is 755,569 domains, or a little under 1 for every 7 people in New Zealand. It sounds like a lot, but it’s not the highest ever recorded. That number is exactly 758,495 domains, in June 2023. As you can see below a big dip followed, so getting up to where we are now has been a bit of a journey.
2023 was a year of unusual decline, and 2024 was literally up and down. This year the total has climbed steadily, which is a good change to see.
The annual growth rate is around 1% #
That steady growth has reached a year-on-year rate of 1%. That’s another way of saying that if you took the total from July 2024 and added another 1%, you’d get this July’s total. It’s been two years since the growth rate was that high, so it’s another good sign. For a bit of an international comparison, we can tell you that the current year-on-year growth rate for Australia’s .au domains is 0.7%. If 1% growth continues, then total .nz domains will reach a new record before the end of the year. But that’s a big “if”.
86% of expired domains are renewed - less than usual #
Every month, a certain number of domains reach their expiry date. Most of those domains are renewed by their owners, and some are left to lapse. At the same time, people register new domains as well. That gives us a simple recipe for the total number of domain names.
- Renewed domains stay in the total.
- Lapsed domains are subtracted from the total.
- New domains are added to the total.
For the overall total to grow, the number of new domains has to be bigger than the number of domains that aren’t renewed. And right now, New Zealand is in less of a renewing mood than usual.
An average of around 90% was normal for years, but in 2022 this trend turned lower. It got as low as 80% and has slowly crept back up to 86%.
Why are domain owners letting more things lapse than usual? One leading theory is that a covid-era boom in ideas for websites and small businesses is working its way out of the system. You can register a new domain for as many as 10 years so it can take a long time for an impulse purchase, or an idea that never panned out, to appear in the renewal statistics.
If the renewal ratio keeps improving, that will aid future growth.
The DNC also reports price data #
Another piece of information on the same DNC Market Data page is the current median price for .nz domains. This is the figure that we quote on our home page, and it’s a good reminder to compare prices from different retailers before you register a new domain.