Quelle surprise. The first statistics have finally been released following last year’s census and, unsurprisingly, they show Queenstown-Lakes has experienced rapid growth. But while it may seem hard to believe, the rate of growth in population has actually slowed down in the past five years. However, census figures also show over the past 10 years, growth in Queenstown has risen by 70%. In 2013 the region had a population of 28,224, which increased by 38.7% to 39,953 in 2018.