Summary
This report has described a range of desirable social outcomes and proposed a range of indicators to measure these outcomes. The indicators provide a snapshot of the current social health of the nation, and for some an indication of whether this aspect of the social health of the nation has improved or deteriorated; an indication of how New Zealand compares internationally; and an indication of how different groups in the population fare.
These findings are summarised below.
THE SOCIAL WELL-BEING OF NEW ZEALANDERS
The health indicators included in this report show some improvement in the health aspects of well-being of New Zealanders. Life expectancy is increasing steadily for all groups. With more people living well into old age, rates of disability are significant, although most New Zealanders can expect to live the great majority of their lives independently. Among younger people the birth rate has declined, and the youth suicide rate, which climbed steadily to 1995, dropped somewhat in 1996 and has been fairly stable since then, improving slightly in 1999. Fewer people smoke now than in the past, although smoking among Māori or Pacific peoples has remained relatively unchanged. These health indicators give cause for concern for the health status of Māori, and to a lesser extent for that of Pacific peoples. A comparison of this country's performance with that of other OECD countries suggests that while the health status of New Zealanders has been improving, improvements in comparable countries have been greater.
Educationally New Zealanders make a good start in life with very high levels of participation in early childhood education. Participation rates have been steadily, improving particularly for Māori and Pacific children. The proportion of school leavers with higher school qualifications improved in the late 1980s, but has since been stable. The level of educational attainment of adults in the population improved throughout the 1990s. However, in 1997 almost half the adult population had literacy levels below those required to meet the demands of everyday life (as measured by the Adult International Literacy Survey). Participation rates in early childhood education compare very favourably with other OECD countries. The proportion of the population with an upper secondary school or a tertiary qualification is about average for OECD countries, and what evidence there is suggests that the rates of adult literacy in English in this country are also about average. New Zealand has high rates of participation in tertiary education internationally with nearly a quarter of 16-24 year-olds enrolled in a tertiary institution.
New Zealand is not always a safe place for its people, especially if they are young. About 10 children each year are killed by those caring for them, and the rate of substantiated reports of abuse and neglect of children has been fairly constant for a number of years. It is, however, difficult to interpret these figures as they reflect only the abuse that is reported. It is unclear how the rate of abuse compares with that of other countries, or whether New Zealanders are prepared to report child abuse more or less readily than do people in other countries. Many New Zealanders have been the victims of violent offending or property offending, and a small proportion of people have been repeatedly victimised. The rate of people killed or injured in motor vehicle crashes has been falling steadily since 1986, but is still higher than that in many comparable OECD countries.
Rates of employment and unemployment have fluctuated with the state of the economy. In the mid to late 1980s unemployment was low, but climbed rapidly to a peak in 1991 and has since fallen somewhat, although it has not returned to the 1986 level. Younger people, Māori and Pacific peoples are all amongst those more likely to be out of work. New Zealand's position relative to other OECD countries has also fluctuated from having one of the lowest unemployment rates 15 years ago, to having a rate well above average by 1992, and around or just below average over the past five years. Safety in the workplace is one measure of the quality of work. Certain groups are more likely to have accidents at work than others, notably men and Māori.
Included in this report as a measure of civic participation, voter turnout has gradually declined since 1986, although New Zealand's voter turnout is high when compared with many other western democracies. Complaints to the Human Rights Commission have increased steadily since 1986, and complaints to the Race Relations Conciliator have risen very sharply particularly in recent years. Complaints relate mostly to discrimination in employment on the grounds of disability and race, access to goods and services and sexual harassment. These trends can be difficult to interpret given legislative changes, expanding the grounds for complaints, and issues of under-reporting.
New Zealanders report a high level of participation in broadly defined arts and cultural activities. Local content on New Zealand television has increased since 1988 until in 1999 when it made up over a third of all programming. News and current affairs, information programmes and sports coverage account for nearly two-thirds of local content. Local content on New Zealand television accounts for a much smaller proportion of total transmission time than in Australia, Canada, Ireland or Norway. A quarter of Māori have conversational fluency in te reo Māori, although the number of fluent Māori speakers is much smaller, and many are older people. Participation in Māori medium education, however, is particularly strong at the early childhood level and significant at the primary school level.
After a brief downturn in the economy in the early 1990s, market income per person has grown since 1992. However, per capita growth since then has been slower than in many comparable countries. Despite this growth, income inequality is higher now than it was in the 1980s due largely to the rise in the incomes of higher earners, and an increase in the proportion of the population with low after-housing cost incomes. The economic indicators suggest that Māori and Pacific families, sole parent families and families with several children are more likely to be on a low income and to experience hardship, such as crowding or food insecurity, than other families.
In terms of social connection with others, almost all of the adult population has access to a telephone, and almost half has access to the Internet in their own home. Over half the population over 12 are involved in unpaid work outside the home, and high proportions of the population report that they participate in family activities and share meals with family or friends. The indicators suggest that social connectedness is less strong for older people than for others, but stronger for Māori and Pacific peoples than others.
The quality of the physical environment influences quality of life in a number of ways. The air quality in New Zealand's urban areas is generally good and is comparable with or better than a number of OECD countries. High levels of air pollution do sometimes occur, particularly in congested traffic corridors. A high proportion of the population has access to good quality drinking water, and that proportion is gradually increasing.
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