File:Palmerston_North_Collage_2015.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Palmerston North
Sign in to saveAlso known as Te Papaioea, Palmy, Student City, Knowledge City, Rose City, Palmy North
city on the North Island in New Zealand
OverviewAI-generated
Palmerston North is a city in New Zealand, located in the Manawatū-Whanganui Region. It serves as the capital of this region and has been established since 1877. The city’s native name is Te Papa-i-oea. It shares borders with the Manawatū District, Horowhenua District, and Tararua District.
The urban area covers 326.0 square kilometers. Population figures vary by source, with estimates ranging from 81,500 to 91,300 residents. The city is situated at an elevation of approximately 34 to 46 meters above sea level. Palmerston North is the owner of Arena Manawatu and maintains twinned relationships with Missoula and Guiyang.
Synthesized by Vinony from 51 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Meteo, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Weather now
7-day forecast
via Open-Meteo
Place details
- Locality
- Palmerston North
- Region
- Manawatū-Whanganui
- Country
- New Zealand / Aotearoa
- Population
- 90,500
- Timezone
- Pacific/Auckland
via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- city
- Country
- New Zealand
- Continent
- Insular Oceania
- Population
- 81500
- Area
- 326.0
- Elevation
- 46
- Time zone
- UTC+12:00
- Capital of
- Manawatū-Whanganui Region
- Shares border with
- Tararua District
- Official website
- www.pncc.govt.nz
- Image
- Te Peeti Awe Awe Memorial, Palmerston North in New Zealand (15).JPG
- Dialing code
- 06
Show 10 more facts
- Commons category
- Palmerston North
- topic's main category
- Category:Palmerston North
- category for people born here
- Category:Births in Palmerston North
- twinned administrative body
- Missoula
- category of associated people
- Category:People from Palmerston North
- inception
- 1877-00-00
- owner of
- Arena Manawatu
- native label
- Palmerston North
- postal code
- 4414
- P12749
- Heligoland
Sources (9)
via Wikidata · CC0
Travel guide
Understand
thumb|Art Deco building in the square
Palmerston North has a population of 80,000, of which about 18,000 are students. It is the seventh largest city in New Zealand and is the largest provincial city in the region. It is also the home of the Linton Military Camp and has the Air Force Base, Ohakea, close by. The Adidas Institute of Rugby, based at Massey University, focuses on improving the skills of the All Blacks, the national rugby union team, though sightings of them there are rare.
Founded as Palmerston, the city was renamed Palmerston North in 1871 by the Post Office to distinguish it from the town of Palmerston in the South Island. Another common name used by the native Māori inhabited is Papaioea.
Get around
Palmerston North is built around The Square. Railway lines used to run through the Square to the station, goods and shunting yards on Main Street west. This proved to be extremely impractical so the station was moved in 1964-66 and the site was turned into a park, known as the Railway Land. The roads radiating outwards from the Square are so wide because they used to accommodate the railway tracks.
Most places are easily accessible by foot.
Buy
Check out the specialist boutiques along George Street.
Eat
Palmerston North has more eating out places per head of population than anywhere else in NZ.
Downtown Centre Foodcourt. Wide selection. Stage Door Cafe now also has a Mini cafe in the UCOL Atrium.
Go next
From centrally located Palmerston North it's an easy 2-3 hr drive to the wineries of Martinborough and Hawke's Bay, the skifields of the Central Plateau and the Art Deco buildings of Napier. Dannevirke and Hawke's Bay with its wineries Feilding – nearby to the north Shannon – nearby to the south-west Masterton and on to the Martinborough wineries in the Wairarapa Whanganui Central North Island - Whakapapa and Turoa skifields, and on to Taupo
Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)
~40 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Palmerston North (/ˈpɑːmərstən/; Māori: Te Papa-i-Oea, colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manawatū River, 35 km (22 mi) from the river's mouth, and 12 km (7 mi) from the end of the Manawatū Gorge, about 140 km (87 mi) north of the capital, Wellington. Palmerston North is the country's eighth-largest urban area, with an urban population of 81,200 (June 2025). The estimated population of Palmerston North city is 90,500 (June 2025).
The official limits of the city take in rural areas to the south, north-east, north-west and west of the main urban area, extending to the Tararua Ranges; including the town of Ashhurst at the mouth of the Manawatū Gorge, the villages of Bunnythorpe and Longburn in the north and west respectively. The city covers a land area of 395 square kilometres (98,000 acres).
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Palmerston North” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.