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Regional Comparison

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Social Connectedness:

Telephone and internet access in the home

Definition

The proportion of the population with telephone and internet access in the home, as measured by the 2000 Living Standards Surveys.

Relevance

Being able to communicate and interact easily in the absence of frequent face-to-face contact helps maintain social connectedness. Access to telephones and access to communication via the internet, especially emails, are particularly relevant as social indicators because access to mail services is almost universal and fax use is principally by businesses. The internet also makes it easier to access a significant and growing repository of information and knowledge.

Current level

Access to a telephone at home is almost universal in New Zealand, at 97 percent overall. Internet access at home is also relatively high at 41 percent, considering the relatively recent introduction of this communication technology.

Table SC1.1 Proportion (%) of the population with telephone and internet access in the home, by
population characteristics, 2000

  Telephone Internet access
Population estimates
Total population 97.3 40.6
Dependent children 96.4 44.3
Age groupings
Adults aged under 65 97.3 44.2
Adults 65 and over 99.2 11.8
Family ethnicity
Māori economic family 92.3 28.3
Pacific economic family 88.1 16.4
European economic family 99.2 44.3
Other economic family 96.9 50.7
Families with dependent children
One parent with dependent children 88.9 25.3
Two parents with dependent children 98.3 49.6
All families with dependent children 96.8 45.6
Family employment/income status
18-64 year olds, main income earner in full-time employment 98.8 49.0
18-64 year olds, main income earner not in full-time employment 91.6 29.2
65 year olds and over, with employment or other income
(above New Zealand Superannuation) 		99.5 18.2
65 year olds and over, with little or no other income
(above New Zealand Superannuation)		 98.8 5.4

Source: Ministry of Social Development (2003b)

Ethnic differences

People living in Pacific economic families (those with any Pacific member) have the lowest level of telephone and internet access in the home (88 percent and 16 percent, respectively), followed by people living in Māori economic families (92 percent and 28 percent). The highest level of internet access in the home was among people living in other non-European economic families (51 percent).

Age group and employment or income differences

Adults 65 years and over are more likely than adults under 65 to have a telephone, but much less likely to have internet access in their home (12 percent compared to 44 percent among adults under 65). Older people with no income other than New Zealand Superannuation have the lowest level of internet access in the home (5 percent).

Among adults under 65, telephone and internet access in the home is lower than average where the main earner in the family is not in full-time employment, the difference being more striking in the case of internet access (29 percent compared to 49 percent).

Differences by family type

Overall, families with dependent children are more likely than average to have internet access in the home. However, sole-parent families are half as likely as two-parent families to have internet access (25 percent compared to 50 percent) and less likely than two-parent families to have a telephone (89 percent compared to 98 percent).

International comparison

New Zealand compares relatively favourably with other countries for access to the internet. In 2000, 14 out of every 100 New Zealanders were internet subscribers, compared with an OECD median of 11. New Zealand ranked ninth out of 26 OECD countries.90

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