Maori or Māori (; ) is an Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people, the indigenous population of New Zealand. Since 1987, it has been one of New Zealand’s official languages. It is closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan, and Tahitian. According to a 2001 survey on the health of the Māori language, the number of very fluent adult speakers was about 9% of the Māori population, or 29,000 adults. A national census undertaken in 2006 says that about 4% of the New Zealand population, or 23.7% of the Maori population could hold a conversation in Maori about everyday things.
