Health

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Health expectancy	64.8 years for males and 68.5 years for females (2001)	Lower for males and Māori	Improved for females	No comparison available
Life expectancy	76.3 years for males and 81.1 years for females (2000-02)	Lower for males, Māori and Pacific peoples and those living in deprived areas	Improving	Average for both males and females
Disability requiring assistance	10.2 % for males and 9.3 % for females (age standardised rate)	Higher for Māori	No change since 1996/97	No reliable comparison available
Suicide	11.7 per 100,000 (age-std rate for all ages); youth 15-24 years, 20.0 per 100,000 (2001)	Suicide deaths higher for males, youth, young adults and Māori; attempted suicide higher for females	Improved since 1998	Average for all ages; poor for male youth
Prevalence of cigarette smoking	25% of population aged 15 years and over smoke cigarettes (2002)	Higher rates among young people, Māori, Pacific peoples and those living in deprived areas	Improved to 1991, steady since	Good for males, poor for females
Obesity	17% for population 15+ (1997); 10% for children 5-14 years (2002)	Higher for females, Pacific people, Māori, females in deprived areas	Worsened up to 1997. No more recent data.	Poor

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Knowledge and Skills

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Participation in early childhood education	'Apparent' participation rate of 94% for 3 year olds and 102% for 4 year olds (2003)	Māori and Pacific rates lower than non-Māori	Improving	No robust comparison available
School leavers with higher school qualifications	63% of school leavers with at least Sixth Form Certificate (2002)	Proportions lower for males, Māori and Pacific school leavers	Improved to 1991, slight decline since 1998	No comparison available
Educational attainment of the adult population	74% of the population aged 25-64 years with at least an upper secondary qualification; 15% of the population aged 25-64 years with tertiary (Bachelor degree+) qualifications (2003)	Proportions lower for older people, women, Māori and Pacific peoples	Improving	Good for upper secondary and average for tertiary
Adult literacy skills in English	54% of population aged 16-65 have a level of literacy in English needed to meet the complex demands of everyday life and work; 50% meet the same standard for document literacy and 51% for quantitative (1996)	Literacy levels lower among older people, Māori and Pacific peoples and Other ethnic groups	No trend available	Average for prose literacy, but below average for document and quantitative
Participation in tertiary education	10.8% of population aged 15 and over enrolled in tertiary education institutions (2003)	Lower rates for males, students from deprived areas; higher for Māori at ages under 18 and over 25	Improving	No direct comparison available; average for 20-29 year olds

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Paid Work

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Unemployment	4.7% of the labour force (2003)	Higher rates for young people, Māori, Pacific and Other ethnic groups	Improving since 1998 almost to mid-1980s levels	Good
Employment	72.5% of the population aged 15-64 years (2003)	Lower rates for young people, women, Māori, Pacific peoples and Other ethnic groups	Improved since 1998 to above mid-1980s levels	Good
Average hourly earnings	$17.82 per hour for wage and salary earners ($19.02 for males; 16.57 for females)	Lower for Māori, Pacific, youth, females over 30	Improving	No comparison available
Workplace injury claims	141 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees (2000/01)	Higher rates for men and Māori	No change over past year	No comparison available
Satisfaction with work/life balance	62% of the population say they are satisfied with their work/life balance	Men, Māori, people of 'other' ethnicity, and people whose personal incomes are more than $60,000  are less likely to be satisfied with their work/life balance	No data	No comparison available

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Economic Standard of Living

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Market income per person	RGNDI of $27,237 per capita (in constant 1995/96 dollars) (2003)	Not measured	Improving	Poor
Income inequality	The household in the 80th percentile has an income 2.7 times the household in the bottom 20th percentile (2001)	Not relevant	Worsened to 1998 then stable	Poor in the mid 1990's
Population with low incomes	22.6 % of population lives in economic family units with incomes below 60% of median (2001)	Higher rates among large families, sole parents, Māori or Pacific families, families from Other ethnic groups, families who rely on income-tested benefits and families in rented dwellings	Worsened to 1994 then improved slowly	Better than OECD median in mid 1990s
Population with low living standards	20% of the total population with restricted living standards (ELSI Levels 1-3) (2000)	As for population with low incomes	No trend data available	No comparison available
Housing affordability	24% of households spend more than 30% of income on housing (2001)	Higher proportions among Māori, Pacific or Other ethnic groups	Worsened to 1998 then stable	No comparison available
Household crowding	3.2% of individuals living in households requiring two or more additional bedrooms (2001)	More common among families with young children, youth, people in rental housing, Māori and Pacific peoples, and in South Auckland	Some improvement	No comparison available

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Civil and Political Rights

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Voter turnout (general elections)	72.5% of the population eligible to vote (2002)	Non-voters more likely to be on lower incomes, younger people and Māori or Pacific people	Worsened	Above average
Representation of women in government	28% of seats in parliament (2002 general election); 31% of elected members (2001 local authority elections)	Not relevant	Improvement, then marginal decline in latest year	Good
Perceptions of discrimination	Asians most common group perceived to be subject to discrimination	Not relevant	Deteriorated for people who are overweight, people with disabilities	No comparison available
Absence of corruption	New Zealand ranked third least corrupt nation with a Corruption Perceptions Index score of 9.5 (2003)	Not relevant	Steady	Very good

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Cultural Identity

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Māori language speakers	25% of Māori report conversational fluency in Māori (2001)	Fluent speakers more likely to be older	No trend available	Not relevant
Language retention	Varied from 17% of Cook Island Māori to 81% of Koreans (2001)	Not relevant	No trend available	No comparison available
Local content programming on New Zealand television	42% of the prime time schedule (2003)	Not relevant	Improved since 2000	Below average

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Leisure and Recreation

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Satisfaction with leisure	68% of the population are satisfied overall with their leisure time (2004)	Those aged 25-44 years and people with personal incomes over $40,000 report lower satisfaction rates	No trend available	No comparison available
Participation in cultural and arts activities	93% of adult population took part in cultural activities (2001/02)	Higher participation rates among young people	No trend available	No comparison available
Participation in sport and active leisure	70% of adults 18 and over, 66% of young people 5-17 years were physically active (2000/01)	Girls and Pacific young people; Māori and Pacific adults less likely to be physically active	Overall improvement, particularly for older adults; deterioration for Māori and Pacific young people	No comparison available

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Physical Enviroment

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Air quality	PM10 levels exceeded recommended guidelines consistently in Christchurch (1995-2003) and Hamilton (1999-2000 and 2002-2003). Wellington levels exceeded guidelines in 2002 and 2003	Not reported	Steady	No comparison available
Drinking water quality	80% of the population had a water supply that conforms with the 1995 standards for E. Coli (2002)	Not reported	Steady	No comparison available

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Safety

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Child abuse and neglect	7.4 substantiated notifications per 1,000 children aged 0-16 (2003)	Female and Māori children more likely to be assessed as abused or neglected	Trend cannot be reliably interpreted	Poor
Criminal victimisation	30% of population aged over 15 years were victims of criminal offending, either as individuals or members of households (2000)	Younger people and Māori more likely to have been a victim of crime	Similar to 1995 level	No reliable comparison available
Perceptions of safety	29% of population felt unsafe walking alone in their neighbourhood after dark	Higher among females, Pacific peoples	No trend available	No comparison available
Road casualties	11.5 deaths per 100,000 population (2003, provisional)	High rates among men, young people, Māori, and those aged 65 and over	Improvement since 1986	Average

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Social Connectedness

Indicators	Current overall level of indicator (most recent year)	Variation within the population	Is this aspect of the quality of life improving overall?	How does this aspect of the quality of life compare with the OECD average (median)?
Telephone and internet access in the home	97% of adult population have access to telephone and 41% to internet in their homes (2000)	Access less likely among Māori and Pacific families, families with unemployed adults and sole parent families	No trend available	Above average for internet
Participation in family/whanau activities and regular contact with family/friends	71% of adults had family or friends over for dinner at least once a month in the previous year and 87% engage in family/whānau activities (2000)	Older people and Europeans less likely to be involved in family activities	No trend available	No comparison available
Trust in others	57% of the adult population report that people can be trusted (2004)	Women, Māori, Pacific peoples and those with incomes less than $20,000 report lower levels of trust	Improving	Good
Experience of loneliness	50% of the adult population report having never felt lonely in the past 12 months (2004)	People of 'other' ethnicity, young people, people whose incomes are less than $20,000, unemployed people and unpartnered people report higher levels of loneliness	No trend available	No comparison available
Contact between young people and their parents	63% of male and 61% of female students spent enough time with Mum or Dad (2001)	Māori students more likely to report not getting enough time with their parents	No trend available	No comparison available

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