• Changes in social wellbeing over time
• Summary of indicators

Conclusion

In this section, we summarise the changes in social outcomes for New Zealanders over the longer term, based on the updated indicators, and we compare New Zealanders’ wellbeing with that of people living in other countries. We feature the changes in social outcomes for men and women over time. We also summarise the changes for the Māori, Pacific peoples, Asian and Other ethnic groups relative to the European population.

Changes in social wellbeing over time

Changes in social wellbeing over time

This Report shows social outcomes have improved strongly since the mid-1990s, as did previous reports. Most of the indicators for which 10-year trends are available show improvements. Suicide, road casualties, unemployment, population with low incomes, participation in tertiary education, and the educational attainment of the adult population (tertiary) have all improved markedly. Only the obesity, income inequality and voter turnout indicators have deteriorated over this period.

We have new data for 27 of the 40 indicators used in this report. Overall, New Zealanders have a good level of social wellbeing and our wellbeing continues to improve across a number of domains. Most of the updated indicators in the Health and Paid Work domains show improved outcomes, and the road death rate has improved in the Safety domain.

However, some outcomes have levelled off following improvements in past years. In particular, a number of indicators in the Knowledge and Skills and the Economic Standard of Living domains are static or show small declines. Some of these are indicators that measure several components, so changes cannot always be interpreted unequivocally as being good or bad for social outcomes. For example, the fall in participation in tertiary education was almost all in Levels 1–3 certificate courses rather than in courses at bachelor’s degree level or higher, reflecting an emphasis on improving the quality of tertiary qualifications.

In the Economic Standard of Living domain, after several years of steady growth, market income per person levelled off in the year to March 2006 and increased slightly in the year to March 2007.

The indicator of local content programming on New Zealand television in the Cultural Identity domain shows an improvement, but the proportion of Māori language speakers has declined slightly. In the Leisure and Recreation domain, participation in physical activity has been steady.

The most recent changes in the Physical Environment domain are mixed. In the Social Connectedness domain most New Zealanders reported they believed people can be trusted, but nearly one-fifth reported they sometimes felt lonely or isolated.

Social wellbeing in New Zealand compared to Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD) countries

Internationally, we compare favourably for many social indicators. New Zealand is at or above the OECD median for two-thirds of the 20 indicators for which we have internationally comparable data.

New Zealand performs extremely well in the area of Civil and Political Rights. In 2006, New Zealand had the lowest equal level of perceived corruption in the OECD. We also perform strongly in the area of Paid Work, with a low unemployment rate and a high employment rate. New Zealanders have a high level of trust in others and a high level of internet access in the home. In terms of Knowledge and Skills, New Zealand is above the OECD median for the proportion of adults who had at least upper secondary qualifications and for participation in tertiary education, and around the OECD median for the proportion of adults who have a bachelor’s degree or higher.

New Zealand is also around the OECD median for the majority of our Health indicators. Our life expectancy is similar to the median life expectancy of the OECD, but we have better outcomes than the OECD median for cigarette smoking. Our suicide death rates and our obesity rates though, are worse than the OECD median.

New Zealand is below the OECD median for market income per person, population with low incomes and income inequality. New Zealand's rate of road deaths is also slightly worse than the OECD median.

Figure CO1 Social wellbeing in New Zealand, relative to the OECD

Changes in social wellbeing for females and males

Over the last 40 years, New Zealand has experienced significant social and demographic changes, many of which have impacted differently on men and women. In this section we look at how the outcomes we measure differ between males and females, on average, and how these sex differences have changed over time. It should be noted we are reporting only on average outcomes, when there can be large variations within outcomes.

Figure CO2 Social wellbeing for females, relative to males, 2004–2006

Although female Health outcomes are generally better, the gap is closing

Although women on average are healthier and are increasingly better educated than men, they lag behind men in outcomes for Paid Work. Outcomes for men and women in the Economic Standard of Living domain are generally similar. In the Safety domain, males face a higher risk of injury or death than females, although fear of crime has a higher impact on the quality of life of females. Improvements for males in Health and improvements for women in Paid Work mean the gaps are narrowing in these domains. In other areas sex differences are less pronounced, although men continue to outnumber women as Members of Parliament.

On average females live longer than males but between 1996 and 2005 the sex gap in life expectancy decreased from 5.3 years to 4 years, reflecting greater gains for males. Between 1996 and 2001 the number of years a female could expect to live in good health (not requiring the assistance of a person or complex device) increased by one year, but there was no real improvement for males. This suggests the increase in life expectancy for males over the period 1996–2001 was in years of relatively poor health. Females gained fewer years, but the time gained was in relatively good health.  

Between 1989 and 2003, obesity increased markedly for both males and females, doubling from 10 to 20 percent for men, and increasing from 13 to 22 percent for women. Females and males have shared very similar rates of cigarette smoking since the 1980s. Rates for both sexes have fallen from 30 percent in 1985 to 25 percent for males and 23 percent for females in 2006.

There is a marked sex gap in the suicide death rate. The male suicide rate is over twice that of females, but females make more suicide attempts than males. Since the mid-1980s, the male suicide death rate increased and then declined whereas the female suicide death rate has remained fairly stable.  

Knowledge and Skills outcomes are improving faster for females than males

In 2006, 65 percent of females compared with 56 percent of males left school with NCEA Level 2 or above. The sex gap in school leavers with higher qualifications increased from the late 1980s and reached a peak in 2001. From 2003 to 2006, the gap in attainment of NCEA Level 2 or above decreased from 10 percentage points to 9 percentage points. Although women are more likely than men to participate in tertiary education (14.6 percent compared with 12.8 percent of men in 2006), the recent decline in participation between 2005 and 2006 was greater for women than for men. 

Men still have a higher rate of educational attainment than women across the population as a whole. In 2006, 78 percent of men and 76 percent of women had attained an educational qualification at upper secondary level or above. This reflects the fact that males aged 45 years and over (and particularly those aged 55–64 years) are more likely to have a higher level of educational attainment than their female contemporaries. This gap is narrowing as younger cohorts of women achieve higher educational outcomes than men. Between 1991 and 2006, the educational attainment of men at upper secondary level or above increased by 8 percentage points compared with 13 percentage points for women.

Men generally have better Paid Work outcomes than women, though the gap has narrowed

In 2006, 3.5 percent of men and 4.1 percent of women were unemployed and actively seeking work. The unemployment rate for women has been higher than that for men since 2002. During New Zealand's peak years of unemployment in the early 1990s, rates of unemployment were higher for men than for women.

Men are also more likely to be employed than women, although the female employment rate is increasing. In 2006, 82 percent of men aged 15–64 years were employed compared to 68 percent of women. While the employment gap between the sexes is substantial, it has narrowed – from 24 percentage points in 1986 to 14 percentage points in 2001, at which point it plateaus.

Men have higher median hourly earnings than women across all ages, although the gap has narrowed over time and is small at younger ages. In 2006, median hourly earnings for males were $18.13 an hour. Female earnings were $2.25 an hour lower at $15.88. The ratio of female to male median hourly earnings fluctuated between 1997 and 2006, but was higher at the end of the period. In 2006, median hourly earnings were about the same for both sexes in the 25–29 years age group. Women are concentrated in a narrower range of jobs than men, are under-represented in higher-level positions, and are more likely to be responsible for a greater share of unpaid work and caring responsibilities. These factors in part contribute to lower female hourly earnings. 

Men are more than twice as likely as women to suffer workplace injuries involving a claim to ACC, but the gap has narrowed. In 2005, there were 170 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalents (FTEs) for males compared with 81 per 1,000 FTEs for females. This reflects in part a male predominance in relatively dangerous occupations. Between 2001 and 2005, there was a greater improvement for males in the rate of workplace injuries than for females. 

Employed men and women have similar rates of satisfaction with work-life balance. Among full-time workers, men are more likely to be satisfied with their work-life balance than women. 

Outcomes for men and women in the Economic Standard of Living domain are generally similar

Since 1986, females have been slightly more likely than males to be living in households with low incomes, reflecting in part the higher proportion of female sole parents, although the gap closed in 2004. Women are also more likely than men to be in lower paid jobs. There is little difference between males and females in housing-related outcomes.

There are still considerably more men than women in Parliament

Despite improvements from the mid-1980s, women are still considerably under-represented in Parliament. In 1984, under the first-past-the-post electoral system, 13 percent of the Members of Parliament were women. This increased sharply to 29 percent under the first mixed-member-proportional election in 1996. Following fluctuations in the next three elections, women now make up 32 percent of the 121 Members of Parliament. In the 1980s, women were more highly represented in local government than in national government, but this was reversed in the 2005 general election. In the 2004 local government elections, 30 percent of elected members were women.

Men are more physically active than women

Surveys over the last two years by Sport and Recreation New Zealand show men are more likely to be physically active than women. 

Males face a higher risk of injury or death than females although fear of crime has a higher impact on the quality of life of females

Males are more likely than females to die from assault or intentional injury (1.7 deaths per 100,000 males in 2004, compared with the female rate of 0.7 deaths per 100,000 females). They are also more likely to be injured or killed in motor vehicle accidents. Although road deaths have declined substantially for both sexes since the mid-1980s, the male road death rate has remained double that for females. 

The New Zealand Crime and Safety Survey 2006 shows males and females are equally likely to experience some form of criminal victimisation. Although females were twice as likely as males to be the victims of sexual offences, males were more likely to be the victims of confrontational offences by people they did not know. 

Despite having the same criminal victimisation rate, females affected by partner violence were the victims of more incidents per person on average than males affected by partner violence.⁹⁶ Women were also more likely than men to report that fear of crime impacted on their quality of life. 

Social Connectedness outcomes are mixed

Men and women reported a similar level of trust in others in 2006, but women were more likely than men to have felt lonely during the past 12 months. 

Changes in wellbeing for Māori relative to Europeans

Māori have poorer outcomes than Europeans, but the gap is closing in many areas

Over recent years there have been considerable improvements in outcomes for Māori across a number of domains, in many cases at a faster rate than for Europeans. Among the improving outcomes for Māori have been increasing life expectancy, greater participation and attainment in education, declining unemployment and rising incomes. However, in these areas and others the average outcomes for Māori still tend to be poorer than those for Europeans.

It is important to note the risk of poor outcomes often varies by age. For example, young adults have higher rates of unemployment, suicide death, road casualties and criminal victimisation, and lower incomes than older adults. For ethnic groups with a young age profile, such as Māori and Pacific peoples, this means that poor outcomes relative to those of other ethnic groups may be partly attributable to the different age structures of the groups. This should be kept in mind when comparing outcomes between ethnic groups for indicators where the data has not been age standardised.

Māori have experienced greater gains in life expectancy than non-Māori over recent years, but Māori still have a shorter life expectancy than Europeans. Māori women have the highest smoking rates of any ethnic group (50 percent) followed by Māori men (40 percent). Since 1990, smoking prevalence has declined by five percentage points for Māori, the same as for the European/Other ethnic group. Māori also have a higher suicide death rate than non-Māori and are more likely to be obese than those in the European/Other ethnic group. 

Considerable gains in Māori educational participation over a number of years have narrowed the gaps between Māori and Europeans in the Knowledge and Skills domain. The participation rate of Māori children in early childhood education grew faster than that for European children from 2000–2004, but it levelled off in 2005 and 2006 at 90 percent, compared with a participation rate for European children of 98 percent. Māori attainment of higher school qualifications in 2006 (37 percent) was considerably lower than for Europeans (65 percent). There have also been considerable increases in Māori participation in tertiary education and in 2006 the rate of Māori participation at tertiary level was the highest of all the major ethnic groups at 20 percent. However, in the core tertiary education age group of 18–24 years the Māori participation rate was lower than that of Europeans. As a result of increasing tertiary participation, the proportion of Māori holding a qualification at bachelor’s degree level or above has also increased over the last 10 years. 

The Māori unemployment rate halved between 1995 and 2006, and is now the lowest since the Household Labour Force Survey began. The gap between the unemployment rates of Māori and Europeans narrowed from 12 percentage points to 5 percentage points over that period. The employment rate for Māori has been increasing at a faster rate than that for Europeans since the early 1990s, although at 65 percent in 2006 it remains well below the European rate of 80 percent. The ratio of Māori to European median hourly earnings fluctuated between 1997 and 2006, and was slightly higher at the end of the period although it dropped from 2005 to 2006. 

Workplace injury claim rates are higher for Māori than those for other ethnic groups (182 per 1,000 FTEs compared with 119 per 1,000 FTEs for Europeans in 2005). The higher claim rate for Māori is likely to reflect their relatively greater concentration in high-risk industries and occupations. 

The proportion of Māori living in households with low incomes has fallen in recent years. After rising from 11 percent in 1982 to 41 percent in 1994, the figure dropped to 22 percent in 2004, narrowing the gap between outcomes for Māori and Europeans living in low income households. 

On average, Māori have worse outcomes in the Safety domain. Māori are about twice as likely as other ethnic groups to die in motor vehicle accidents, and considerably more likely than non-Māori to die as a result of assault or intentional injury. In the five years to 2004, the rate of death from assault or intentional injury for Māori children under 15 years was 1.4 per 100,000 children, compared with 0.6 per 100,000 for non-Māori. Māori adults are also more likely to be victims of crime (47 percent compared with 37 percent for Europeans). While 36 percent of Europeans reported that crime affected their quality of life, 47 percent of Māori reported this.

The number of speakers of te reo Māori increased by 1,100 between 2001 and 2006. The 2006 Census shows a slight decrease in the proportion of Māori who speak Māori since 2001, while the 2006 Survey on the Health of the Māori Language shows an increase over this same period. It is not clear whether the proportion of Māori who speak Māori has declined slightly or increased.

Figure CO3 Social wellbeing for Māori, relative to Europeans, 2004–2006

Changes in wellbeing for Pacific peoples relative to Europeans

Although outcomes are improving for Pacific peoples, they are still comparatively poor in a number of areas

Like Māori, Pacific peoples have also experienced improving outcomes in a number of areas including education, employment and living standards. However, some indicators show a slowing of earlier improvements and considerable gaps remain between the outcomes of Pacific peoples and those of Europeans.

Pacific peoples were more likely to smoke cigarettes in 2006 (37 percent) than Europeans/Others (21 percent) and Asians (12 percent), but were less likely to do so than Māori (45 percent). Pacific peoples have the highest prevalence of obesity of any ethnic group.

Knowledge and Skills outcomes for Pacific peoples have generally improved over the long term but recent changes are more mixed. As was the case with Māori, the participation rate of Pacific children in early childhood education increased faster than the rate for European children between 2000 and 2004, but participation rates declined slightly over the next two years. Pacific children have the lowest rate of attendance of any ethnic group. Pacific peoples’ attainment of higher school qualifications in 2006 (50 percent) was lower than for Europeans (65 percent).

The increase in the proportion of Pacific adults with qualifications at upper secondary level or above between 1996 and 2003 was the largest of any ethnic group, but between 2003 and 2006 the proportion declined. The proportion of Pacific adults who hold a qualification at bachelor’s degree level or above has increased since 1996.

The unemployment rate for Pacific peoples, like that of Māori, has fallen markedly over recent years. In 2006, Pacific peoples had an unemployment rate of 6.4 percent – lower than the Māori rate but higher than that for Europeans. Unemployment peaked at 28.0 percent in 1991 for Pacific peoples, the highest rate for any ethnic group, and 20.1 percentage points higher than the European unemployment rate. In 2006, this gap had reduced to 3.7 percentage points. Pacific unemployment reached a record low of 6.1 percent in 2005. Employment rates for Pacific peoples fell steeply from 68.4 percent in 1986 to 45.6 percent in 1991. They have recovered strongly since then. However, with an employment rate of 61.6 percent in 2006, Pacific peoples are still less likely to be employed than they were in 1986.

The ratio of Pacific peoples’ median hourly earnings to Europeans’ earnings has fluctuated over the past nine years. The ratio is now slightly higher than it was in 1997.

The proportion of Pacific peoples living in households with low incomes has fallen markedly in recent years. After rising from 13 percent in 1982 to 44 percent in 1994, it dropped to 29 percent in 2004. The proportion of Pacific families spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs has been higher than that for European or Māori families over the past decade to 2004, but the gap narrowed between 2001 and 2004. Pacific peoples are far more likely to live in crowded households than other ethnic groups. The level of household crowding improved for Pacific peoples between 1986 and 2006.

In 2005, 47 percent of Pacific peoples were victims of crime compared with 37 percent of Europeans. Pacific peoples were also more likely than Europeans to report that fear of crime had an impact on their quality of life. 

Figure CO4 Social wellbeing for Pacific peoples, relative to Europeans, 2004–2006

Other ethnicities

Outcomes for ethnic groups other than European, Māori and Pacific peoples are mixed

Indicators for ethnic groups other than European, Māori and Pacific peoples are limited. Some surveys used in this report provide separate data on Asians and on those people of other ethnicities. In other cases, data on Asians and on those of other ethnicities are combined. This, along with the diverse make-up of the Other category, probably contributes to the mixed outcomes evident for this group.

After European children, Asian children are the most likely to have attended an early childhood service before attending primary school, followed by children of the Other ethnic group. The rate of attendance for Asian children and children of the Other ethnic group grew faster than the rate for European children between 2000 and 2006. The Asian group has the highest level of school leavers with higher school qualifications, followed by Europeans. Adults from the Other (including Asian) ethnic group are the most likely to have at least upper secondary qualifications and to have tertiary qualifications at bachelor’s degree level or above.

The Other (including Asian) ethnic group has the second lowest rate of unemployment, behind Europeans (6.2 percent compared with 2.7 percent for Europeans in 2006). The unemployment rate of this group has been consistently below the unemployment rates of Māori and Pacific peoples since 1986. Between the mid-1990s and 2005, partly through the inclusion of international students studying in New Zealand, the Other ethnic group had the lowest rate of employment of any ethnic group. In 2006, the employment rate of the Other ethnic group was higher than that for Pacific peoples. Median hourly earnings for the Other ethnic group have consistently been second highest, behind European median hourly earnings over the period since 1997. However, employees from the Other ethnic group experienced the lowest percentage increase (4 percent) in real median hourly earnings from wage and salary jobs over the nine years to June 2006.

The proportion of Other (including Asian) ethnic families with low incomes increased from 8 percent in 1982 to a peak of 54 percent in 1998. It decreased to 38 percent in 2004, but was the highest of any ethnic group. Households with an adult of Other ethnicity were more likely to spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs than any other group, and to experience an increase in the proportion with housing costs greater than 30 percent between 2001 and 2004 (from 36 percent to 42 percent). After Pacific peoples and Māori, those in the Other (excluding Asian) ethnic group were the most likely to be living in a crowded household, followed by Asians. The Other ethnic group was the only ethnic group to have an increased incidence of crowding between 1991 and 2001.