About the region

• The Greater Wellington region covers a land area of 813,005 hectares and a maritime area of 786,700 hectares. There are 497 kilometres of coastline.

• The population of the region is 487,700 (Statistics NZ, estimated resident population, 30 June 2011).

• Greater Wellington manages 320 kilometres of river channels and 280 kilometres of stopbanks. We are responsible for one of the largest flood protection schemes in New Zealand.

• Around 35 million passenger journeys are made on the region's public transport system each year.

• Greater Wellington collects, treats and delivers about 155 million litres of high quality water each day, on average, to the Wellington, Hutt, Upper Hutt and Porirua city councils.

• Greater Wellington manages possum control programmes on approximately 322,000 hectares of land in the region each year.

• Greater Wellington manages 50,000 hectares of regional parks and forests.