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Knowledge & Skills

Economic Standard of Living

Civil & Political Rights

Cultural Identity

Leisure & Recreation

Social Connectedness

Life Satisfaction

Notes & References

Changes in social wellbeing over time Social wellbeing in New Zealand compared to OECD countries Changes in wellbeing for selected population groups Summary table of indicators

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Summary table of indicators

Health

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Health expectancy	Males 67.4 years Females 69.2 years (2006)		Improved, faster for males than for females	Lower for males and Māori	No comparison available
Life expectancy	Males 78.4 years Females 82.4 years (2007–2009)		Improved, faster for males than for females	Lower for males, Māori and people living in deprived areas	Similar to OECD median
Suicide	11.0 deaths per 100,000 (age-standardised rate for all ages) (2007) Youth 15–24 years, 15.3 deaths per 100,000 (2007)		Improved since 1998, below the 1986 level	Suicide deaths higher for males, youth, young adults and Māori; intentional self-harm hospitalisations higher for females	Higher than OECD median for males; relatively high for youth of both sexes
Cigarette smoking	22 percent of population aged 15–64 years (2009) 21 percent of population aged 15 years and over (2008) 6 percent of girls, 5 percent of boys aged 14–15 years (daily rate) (2009)		15–64 years population: improved from 2006 to 2009 15 years and over population: improved to 1991, steady to 2003, improved to 2007 14–15 year olds: big drop since 1999	Higher rates among younger adults, Māori, Pacific peoples and people living in deprived areas	Daily smoking rate lower than OECD median overall; much lower than OECD median for males, similar to OECD median for females
Obesity	25 percent of population aged 15 years and over (age-standardised rate) (2006/2007) 8 percent of children aged 5–14 years (2006/2007)		Increased since 1997 but no statistically significant increase in age-adjusted rate between 2002/2003 and 2006/2007 Children: Similar to rate in 2002	Higher for Pacific peoples, Māori, and people living in deprived areas	Higher than OECD median for 12 countries with measured obesity rate
Potentially hazardous drinking	22.9 percent of drinkers aged 15 years and over (2006/2007)		Similar to levels in 1996/1997 and 2002/2003	Higher among males, young people, Māori , Pacific peoples, those in deprived areas	Alcohol consumption lower than OECD median

Knowledge and skills

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Participation in early childhood education	Enrolment rate in licensed services: 92 percent for 3 year olds and 100 percent for 4 year olds (2009)		Improved	Māori and Pacific rates lower than European	No robust comparison available
School leavers with higher qualifications	71 percent of school leavers with NCEA Level 2 or above (2008)		No comparable longer-term trend available	Proportions lower for males, Māori, Pacific school leavers and those at low-decile schools	No comparison available
Participation in tertiary education	12.4 percent of population aged 15 years and over enrolled in tertiary education institutions (age-standardised rate)(2009)		Improved	Lower rates for males, higher for Māori at ages under 18 years and over 25 years	No direct comparison available. Higher than OECD median for 20–29 year olds
Educational attainment of the adult population	75 percent of the population aged 25–64 years with at least an upper secondary qualification (2009) 22 percent of the population aged 25–64 years with tertiary (bachelor’s degree+) qualifications (2009)		Improved	Proportions lower for people aged 55–64 years, particularly women; Māori and Pacific peoples; Asian/Other adults had the highest proportion with tertiary qualifications	Similar to OECD median for upper secondary and above; higher than OECD median for tertiary (bachelor’s degree+)
Adult literacy skills in English	56 percent of 16–65 year olds with higher prose literacy skills (Level 3+) 57 percent with higher document skills 49 percent with higher numeracy skills (2006)		Improvement since 1996 for prose and document literacy; no trend data for numeracy	Proportions lower for youngest and oldest age groups and ethnic groups other than New Zealand European	Similar to Australia, Canada, higher than United States

Paid work

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Unemployment	6.1 percent of the labour force (year ended December 2009)		Improved since 1998, but above mid-1980s levels	Higher rates for youth aged 15–24 years, Māori, Pacific peoples	Lower than OECD median
Employment	72.9 percent of the population aged 15–64 years (year ended December 2009)		Improved since 1998, similar to mid-1980s levels	Lower rates for young people, women and ethnic groups other than European	Well above OECD median, for males and females
Median hourly earnings	$19.47 an hour for wage and salary earners ($20.53 for males; $18.22 for females) (June quarter 2009)		Improved since 1997	Lower for Pacific peoples, Māori, youth and females over 20 years	No comparison available
Work-related injury claims	117 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees (2008 provisional)		Improved since 2002	Higher rates for men, ethnic groups other than European	No comparison available
Satisfaction with work-life balance	78 percent of employed people said they were satisfied with their work-life balance (2008)		Steady	Full-time employed people and people aged 35–54 years are less likely to be satisfied with their work-life balance	No comparison available

Economic standard of living

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Market income per person	RGNDI of $29,836 per person (in constant 1995/1996 dollars) (year ended December 2009)		Improved since the mid-1990s, higher than the late 1980s	Not measured	Well below OECD median
Income inequality	The equivalised disposable income of a household at the 80th percentile was 2.5 times larger than the income of a household at the 20th percentile (2009)		Around the same as the mid-1990s	Not relevant	Higher inequality than OECD median (around 2004)
Population with low incomes	15 percent of population lives in households with incomes below 60 percent of the 2007 median, after adjusting for housing costs (2009)		Improved considerably since the mid-1990s	Higher rates for children, sole-parent families and large families	Slightly higher than OECD median, using a 50 percent of median measure (2004)
Housing affordability	27 percent of all households spend more than 30 percent of income on housing (2009) 33 percent of low-income households spend more than 30 percent of income on housing (2009)		Improved from 1998 to 2004, worsened between 2004 and 2007, steady in 2009 Low-income households: improved between 1994 and 2004, steady in 2007 and 2009	Higher proportions for low-income households, Pacific peoples and Other ethnic groups,	No comparison available
Household crowding	10 percent of individuals live in households requiring one or more additional bedrooms (2006)		Improved	More common among families with young children, youth, people in rental housing, Māori and Pacific peoples and in Manukau City	No comparison available

Civil and political rights

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Voter turnout (general elections) Voter turnout (local authority elections)	76 percent of the population eligible to vote (2008) 44 percent of enrolled electors (2007)		Fallen Fallen	Asian people, the unemployed and people on low incomes less likely to vote	Higher than OECD median for general election
Representation of women in government	34 percent of seats in Parliament (2008 general election) 32 percent of elected members (2007 local authority elections)		Improved Improved	Not relevant	Well above OECD median for women in parliament
Representation of ethnic groups in government	25 percent of MPs identified as Māori, Pacific peoples or Asian		Improved	Pacific peoples and Asians under-represented	No comparison available
Perceived discrimination	Asians most common group perceived to be subject to discrimination (2008) (new) 10 percent of people aged 15 years and over report being discriminated against (2008)		Improved No trend available	Highest for Asians, people on welfare Higher for Asians, Māori, Pacific people, youth, unemployed, sole parents, people in rental housing	Group discrimination: no comparison available Personal discrimination: well below median for 19 European OECD countries
Perceived corruption	New Zealand ranked first as least corrupt nation with a Corruption Perceptions Index score of 9.4 (2009)		Steady	Not relevant	Well above OECD median

Cultural identity

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Local content programming on New Zealand television	39 percent of the prime-time schedule (2009)		Improved	Not relevant	Below average (1999)
Māori language speakers	24 percent of Māori report ability to converse in Māori (2006)		Slightly lower in 2006 than in 2001	Speakers more likely to be older	Not relevant
Language retention	Varied from 16 percent of Cook Islands Māori to 84 percent of Koreans (2006)		Little change for most ethnic groups	Not relevant	No comparison available

Leisure and recreation

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Satisfaction with leisure time	75 percent of the population aged 15 years and over are satisfied overall with their leisure time (2008)		Steady	Those aged 25–54 years and Asians report lower satisfaction rates	No comparison available
Participation in physical activity	51 percent of the population aged 15 years and over were physically active (age-standardised rate) (2006/2007)		Steady	Women, Asians and older people were less likely to be physically active than men and young people	No comparison available
Participation in arts and cultural activities (new data source)	83 percent of people aged 15 years and over had attended an arts event 48 percent had actively participated in arts and cultural activities		Steady	Attendance lower for Asian people, those with no qualifications; participation higher for Māori, Pacific peoples	Higher than Australia, England, Scotland

Safety

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Assault mortality	All ages: Age-standardised rate of 1.3 deaths per 100,000 people (2007, provisional) Children under 15 years: five-year average annual rate of 0.8 deaths per 100,000 (2003–2007)		Improved since early 1990s Improved	Highest among males, youth aged 15–24 years and Māori	Higher than OECD median, especially for females; no recent comparison for children
Criminal victimisation	39 percent of population aged 15 years and over were victims of criminal offending, either as individuals or members of households (2005)		No trend available	Young people, Māori and Pacific peoples more likely to have been a victim of crime	No reliable comparison available
Fear of crime	40 percent of adults said that fear of crime had a moderate or high impact on their quality of life (2005)		No trend available	Fear higher among females, Asians, Māori, Pacific peoples and those in socio-economically deprived areas	No comparison available
Road casualties	8.9 deaths per 100,000 population (2009) 337 injuries per 100,000 population (2009, provisional)		Improved Improved since mid-1980s	High rates among men, young people, Māori and those aged 65 years and over	Road user death rate higher than the OECD median for all ages; highest of 24 OECD countries for children under 15 years and youth 15–17 years

Social connectedness

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result		Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
	better	same
	worse	not updated
	not comparable
Telephone and internet access in the home	85 percent of adults had the personal use of a mobile phone (2009) 75 percent of households had internet access (2009)		Big improvement for internet access	Access less likely among Māori and Pacific families, families with unemployed adults and sole-parent families	Well above OECD median for household internet access
Contact with family and friends (new data source)	60 percent of people aged 15 years and over said the amount of contact they have with non-resident family and friends is about right		No trend available	Māori and the unemployed less likely to report the amount of contact was about right	No comparison available
Contact between young people and their parents	57 percent of secondary school students said they spent enough time with their Mum and/or Dad (2007)		Fallen	Māori, Pacific and Asian students more likely to report not getting enough time with their Mum and/or Dad	No comparison available
Trust in others	78 percent of people aged 15 years and over reported that people can be trusted (2008)		Steady	Māori, Pacific peoples, Asians and those with incomes less than $30,000 reported lower levels of trust	Well above the median for 25 European OECD countries
Loneliness	16 percent of people aged 15 years and over reported having felt lonely in the past 12 months (2008)		Steady	Pacific peoples, Asians, females and people who rated their health as poor reported higher levels of loneliness	No comparison available
Voluntary work	(new) 33 percent of population aged 15 years and over had done voluntary work for a group or organisation in the last four weeks		No trend available	Higher among older people, Pacific people, those with higher education and people with higher incomes	Similar to Australia

Life satisfaction

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result	Longer-term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Overall life satisfaction	(new) 86 percent of population aged 15 years and over were satisfied with their life overall (2008)	No trend available	Lower for the unemployed, sole parents, people with no qualifications, people in rented housing	Above the OECD median