Hastings is the administrative centre of the Hastings District in the Hawke's Bay Region of the North Island of New Zealand. Hastings is located inland from the City of Napier.
Less than twenty kilometres separate the centres of Hastings City and Napier, and as such the two are often called "The Twin Cities" or "The Bay Cities". The population of the urban area of Napier-Hastings is 122,600. This makes the area's population comparable to that of Dunedin on the South Island.
Since the merger of the surrounding and satellite settlements, Hastings has grown to become the largest urban area in Hawke's Bay. Now the region's main centre of commerce, industry and trade, as shown by the ever-expanding skyline of multi-storey office buildings in its centre, Hastings has grown rapidly with the help of the smart and tidy gridiron city planning system, crisscrossed by the railway line running northeast-southwest and the main east-west artery, Heretaunga Street, which also links the city with its suburban centres of Havelock North and Flaxmere.
Many Hastings residents work in the city, and the area is populated by middle-to-upper income families in some suburbs and areas, and then middle-to-lower income families in other areas, especially towards Camberley and Flaxmere.