Maungati is a lightly populated locality[3] situated approximately 18 miles southwest of Timaru in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island.

Maungati comes from the Māori language words "maunga", meaning "mountain", and "tī", meaning "cabbage tree", and thus means "mountain of cabbage tree".

Maungati covers 695.95 km2 (268.71 sq mi)[1] and had an estimated population of 840 as of June 2024,[2] with a population density of 1.21 people per km2.

The percentage of people born overseas was 15.4, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 54.9% had no religion, 38.6% were Christian, 0.4% had Māori religious beliefs, 0.4% were Buddhist and 0.8% had other religions.