FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1st October 2009

Strong Support For Status Quo In Wanganui

A new poll shows a solid majority of New Zealanders favouring the retention of the ‘Wanganui’ name. The UMR survey shows 62% of New Zealanders want the city to continue to be spelt as ‘Wanganui’, while 25% think that the spelling should be changed to ‘Whanganui’. The remaining 13% are undecided.

Opinions have firmed slightly since the last time UMR asked a question on this issue, when 59% wanted ‘Wanganui’ and 30% wanted ‘Whanganui’.

50% of Māori support changing the spelling to ‘Whanganui’, while 37% want the ‘Wanganui’ spelling kept.

Political preference is a key differentiating factor, with just 16% of National voters wanting the spelling changed to ‘Whanganui’ compared with 31% of Labour voters. The sample for Māori party voters in the September survey is too small for robust analysis, but combining the April and September samples of Māori party voters shows 81% of Māori party voters in favour of a spelling change.

These results are based upon questions asked of a representative sample of 750 New Zealanders in a UMR Research omnibus survey conducted from September 24th to 27th. The margin of error for sample size of 750 for a 50% figure at the ‘95% confidence level’ is ± 3.6%.

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