You probably assume Wellington wins the most government contracts. It's the capital. Home to ministries, public servants, and the machinery of government spending.

You'd be wrong.

Auckland companies won 2,938 government procurement tenders, capturing 12% of all contracts awarded. Wellington? Just 2,047 tenders, or 8% of the total. (Source: MBIE, procurement)

Across New Zealand, government agencies awarded 25,054 tenders. That's 25,054 decisions about who gets taxpayer money to build roads, supply IT systems, provide consultancy services, deliver training programmes.

Canterbury came third with 2,574 contracts, putting it ahead of the nation's capital. Waikato and Otago each secured over 1,700 tenders. Even smaller regions like Bay of Plenty and Hawke's Bay won more than 1,000 contracts each.

The pattern is clear: government procurement flows to where the economy already thrives, not where public sector jobs concentrate. Auckland's private sector ecosystem, its scale, its concentration of large firms capable of bidding on complex contracts gives it the edge.

Wellington's economy runs on public service salaries. But when those same agencies need to buy something, they're sending the money north.

This matters because procurement is how government spending actually hits the ground. A public servant's salary recirculates through their local shops and cafes. A procurement contract can fund entire companies, create private sector jobs, build expertise that wins more work.

The 3,011 contracts classified under "New Zealand" (likely national or multi-region projects) represent another 12% of all tenders. These are the big infrastructure plays, the nationwide IT systems, the contracts too large for any single region.

What you don't see in this data: the dollar values. A $50,000 contract and a $50 million contract both count as one tender. Auckland might be winning on volume while Wellington captures the massive policy consultancy gigs. Or the reverse. We don't know, because procurement transparency in New Zealand stops at counting contracts, not valuing them.

But even contract volume tells a story. It shows which regions have the businesses, the capacity, the track record to even bid on government work. It shows where procurement expertise concentrates. It shows that when your taxes get spent, they're more likely to flow to Queen Street than The Terrace.

Government likes to talk about regional development, about spreading opportunity beyond the main centres. The procurement data suggests the opposite: when it comes time to actually hand out the work, the same regions win again and again.