Napier-Hastings Urban Area

Napier-Hastings Urban Area is a New Zealand urban area that covers the twin cities of Napier and Hastings. It is the fifth largest urban area in the country with a population of over 128,600. This is closely followed by Tauranga (116,000), and Dunedin (114,900).

While the two cities remain separated by 10km of rural land, there is sufficient economic and social integration between the cities for Statistics New Zealand to aggregate them into a single unit. However, like the urban areas of Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington, the Napier-Hastings urban area is subdivided into urban zones. Both zones have a population of around 60,000. The urban area contains around three quarters of the population of the entire Hawke's Bay.

Napier Urban Zone includes Napier City (25,000) and two tracts of rural land from Hastings District: Bay View (500) to the north and Waiohiki (100) to the south. It also includes the township of Taradale (20,000).

Although the Napier Urban Zone has a smaller population than Hastings Urban Zone, Napier is traditionally seen as the capital of the Hawke's Bay. This is partly historical as Napier was the seat of the provincial government of the 'Hawkes Bay Province'. The continued perception of Napier being larger is partly because Hastings' population is divided between Hastings proper and its satellite towns of Flaxmere and Havelock North (separated from the main urban core by small rural tracts of land). This was originally the case with Napier and Taradale but was subject to intense development of residential suburbs to spread slowly south towards Taradale and Greenmeadows (17,000 pop).

Napier also hosts the regions only port (the far majority of export coming from Hastings' industry and food processing), the regions only domestic airport, the region's High Court, the local polytechnic college, and the Hawkes Bay Regional Council Headquarters. Napier, due to its more 'boutique' feel, attracts the regions biggest concentration of national chain stores. Stores like Jay Jays and Glassons in Napier, but not Hastings, which would be unusual for a city of over 70,000 if not so closely located.