The suburb is the southernmost part of the Auckland metropolitan area.

[3] Ethnographer George Graham recorded that the name meant "Of Paheke", which suggests that it was named after a person called Paheke.

Before the 2023 census, Ōpaheke had a smaller boundary, covering 1.11 km2 (0.43 sq mi).

The percentage of people born overseas was 22.8, compared with 27.1% nationally.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 49.5% had no religion, 35.8% were Christian, 1.6% had Māori religious beliefs, 2.1% were Hindu, 0.7% were Muslim, 0.7% were Buddhist and 3.6% had other religions.