Perceived discrimination

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Definition

The proportion of people aged 18 years and over who perceived selected groups as being the targets of "some" or a "great deal" of discrimination, as reported in surveys commissioned by the Human Rights Commission.

Relevance

The freedom from unlawful discrimination is a core principle of democratic societies. Surveys on perceived discrimination towards groups of people provide one indication of the level and type of discrimination in New Zealand. As they do not measure actual levels of discrimination, it is not possible to conclude whether levels of discrimination have increased or decreased.

Current level and trends

In November 2008, 74 per cent of respondents to the Human Rights Commission Survey 2008 thought Asian people were subject to a great deal or some discrimination, the highest proportion for any group. This was followed by people who are overweight (68 per cent), people on welfare (66 per cent) and recent immigrants (65 per cent). The level of perceived discrimination was higher in 2008 than in 2007 for a number of groups. The greatest increases were recorded for Pacific peoples (up by 9 percentage points) and for Asians, people who are overweight and gays and lesbians (each up by 6 percentage points). Over the same period, perceived discrimination decreased slightly for women and older people (by 3 percentage points and 2 percentage points, respectively).

Table CP4.1 Proportion (%) of survey respondents who perceived selected groups as being subject to a great deal or some discrimination, December 2000–November 2008

Group	Dec 2000	Dec 2001	Jan 2003	Jan 2004	Feb 2006	Nov 2007	Nov 2008
Asians	73	73	79	78	72	68	74
People who are overweight	72	65	65	68	59	62	68
People on welfare	75	70	68	66	63	62	66
Recent immigrants	-	68	77	72	70	62	65
Refugees	-	68	72	70	63	56	61
Gays and lesbians	74	65	61	58	57	54	60
Pacific peoples	71	65	65	57	54	51	60
People with disabilities	61	55	53	55	53	52	57
Māori	70	62	57	53	51	48	52
Older people	53	48	49	46	44	46	44
Women	50	44	41	38	38	39	36
Men	-	-	-	-	30	29	27
Children and young people	-	-	-	-	-	-	27

Source: Human Rights Commission (2009)

Over half of the survey respondents in 2008 thought refugees, gays and lesbians, Pacific peoples, people with disabilities and Māori were the targets of a great deal or some discrimination. Less than half of respondents thought that older people, women, men and children and young people were discriminated against.

Between December 2001 and November 2008, the perception that different groups were subject to some or a great deal of discrimination fell for 8 of the 11 groups that had comparable data. The largest decline in perceived discrimination between 2001 and 2007 was for Māori (down by 10 percentage points). There were also large declines in perceived discrimination against women and refugees over the same period (down by 8 percentage points and 7 percentage points, respectively).

» View technical details about the perceived discrimination indicator

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