There is broad agreement among contemporary analysts of the Tongan Transnational System that change is afoot and that shifting attitudes brought on by increasing engagement with the world system, migration and globalisation are root causes of whatever change might come. There is less certainty about the degree and nature of change within the TTS, and the relative uniformity of patterns of change within the system. In the above analysis, we used quantitative data to establish the patterns of variation emerging within and between Tongans living in Tonga, and those living in Auckland. These variations are more complex than location alone can account for and contradict overly simple Tonga/Overseas Tongan community distinctions. We suggest that providing a quantifiable context with which to compare existing qualitative and narrative analyses of the degree and direction of transformations and distinctions within contemporary Tongan identity, while by no means definitive or without methodological caveats, is a valuable, and currently neglected, area of research. We would further suggest that employing techniques like these can add to discussions of the present and emerging nature of transnationalism more generally. Carefully and appropriately done, such analyses allow us to quantify divergence within transnational systems. We are not suggesting that such a turn should or could replace qualitative analyses, but rather that statistical assessments can provide a valuable context in which qualitative materials can be read and understood.