Today most of Maori people live in New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of New Zealand and the head of state. The Parliament of New Zealand holds legislative power. The capital city is Wellington. 
Today these people are integrated in political, economic and social institutions, for example the New Zealand Maori Council, the Maori Women’s Welfare League and the Maori Education Foundation. New Zealand actually has three official languages – Te Reo, English and New Zealand English. English is the predominant language spoken by 98% of the population. New Zealand English is similar to Australian English. After the World War II, the local people were discouraged from speaking their language. Nowadays, there are native language immersion schools and two Maori Television channels. The major religion in New Zealand is Christianity – mainly Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, Presbyterianism and Methodism. Minority of religions include Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.
The number of the native population is increasing; even their culture is being brought back, getting popular all over the world. Songs, dances, traditional art and the Te Reo are being taught in New Zealand schools. It has also been improvement in their legal and social status. Today these people live in European-style houses and their children go to English-speaking schools. They wear European-style clothes; vote in elections along with the white people, called Pakeha. 
They do not live together in big family groups – tribes, like they used to live before the first Europeans. Today every family still has a close contact with other families; such families often own land together or have an own marae (farmyard), which consists of several important buildings, a meeting hall, a dining hall and a big yard. There they debate different issues, or celebrate birthdays and weddings etc. The Marae is the basis of their social life. These people are still proud to be Maori having different culture. They are passionate, humble and friendly but also fierce when they need to be, they are survivors. Diseases and wars reduced their population to only 40,000. Today, they are about 790,000 people with the native ancestry. Spirituality, respect and belonging to an extended family have given them strength and allowed them to hold on their culture in the world.