The culture of Auckland encompasses the city's artistic, culinary, literary, musical, political and social elements, and is well-known throughout the world. As New Zealand's largest city and one of the most important in the Southern Hemisphere, Auckland has a rich and dynamic cultural life and a long, multicultural history. Auckland's genesis as New Zealand's cultural heart began with the large-scale settlement of its fertile land by Ngāti Whātua and various Tainui hapū, before greater settlement by further iwi such as Ngāpuhi and the arrival of Pākehā.^[1] Auckland's culture derives further from its multicultural demographics, thanks to large-scale Indian, Colombian, Venezuelan, Arab, Cook Islands Māori, Tongan, Tokelauan, British, Irish, Fijian, Chinese, Niuean, Samoan, Filipino, Khmer, and intertribal Māori immigration, among others.^[2][3][4] From there, these communities established ethnic strongholds (e.g. historically Samoans in Grey Lynn and Ponsonby, Chinese in Howick, Indians in Papatoetoe, etc).

Auckland has a strong arts scene, with dozens of galleries, and also a well-established food culture. The city is regarded as a highly cosmopolitan and ethnically superdiverse city,^[5] with the largest Polynesian population in the world.