Of the 800,213 people enrolled as KiwiSavers as of last Saturday more than 290,000 were automatically signed up when they started new jobs.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen released the figures today. He said it was positive that 29 percent of those in the scheme were aged under 25.

"It is clear that New Zealand is experiencing a significant positive change in its personal savings culture and that is good news for young KiwiSavers and for our entire country," Dr Cullen said.

Other breakdowns were:

* 383,388 people actively chose to directly enrol;

* 125,424 chose to join via their employer;

* 454,774 new employees were automatically enrolled by their employer but of those 163,373 opted out. That left the total for this group at 291,401.

A further 4116 closed their accounts.