The graphs show the number of people migrating to and from Ireland and New Zealand over a similar period: between 1987 and 2005 for Ireland and between 1992 and 2007 for New Zealand.

The graph for Ireland shows that prior to 1992 far more people were emigrating from Ireland than immigrating to it. The peak in this trend was in 1991 when 70000 people left and only 30000 arrived. Things settled down, however, in the period between 1992 and 1995 when roughly the same number of people [around 35,000] emigrated and immigrated. From 1996 the picture again started to change as the number immigrating started to increase quite steadily and numbers emigrating started to steadily decline. By 2005 around 90000 people a year were immigrating to Ireland with only about 18000 people emigrating from it.

The graph for New Zealand similarly shows periods of net emigration and net immigration, but the pattern over the 25 years is more variable. From 1993 to 1996 the number of people emigrating, and immigrating increased at the same rate. From 1996 until 2000 the numbers immigrating to New Zealand fell dramatically. Between 1998 and 2002 more people were emigrating from NZ than immigrating to it. From 2002 to 2007 there was again a net immigration each year, but numbers varied. In 2003, for example, there was net immigration of 45000 whereas in 2005 net immigration was only 5000.

The data for both countries shows that patterns of migration varied considerably in the given period.