Chief Executive's Preface
With the Social Report, New Zealand is recognised as world
leading in its reporting on key social trends. In its eighth year of
production, the Social Report is now well established as a source of
information which is widely used by non-government organisations, local
government and public and private sector organisations to inform their
business decisions and their planning.
The combined picture makes a vital contribution to
understanding and taking action on complex social issues. Many of the
indicators are disaggregated to regional and territorial authority
level.
The indicators are also broken down by groups where possible.
For example, this enables us to know how Māori, Pacific peoples are
faring compared to other New Zealanders, and to see the results for men
and women. The report also compares results for New Zealand compared to
those for a number of other countries.
The Social Report has an important contribution to make to
informed discussion about social issues at both a national and local
levels across New Zealand.
This year’s Report captures the first impacts of the economic
recession.
I would like to acknowledge the contribution of everyone who
has been involved in producing this year’s Report.
I am sure that the Social Report 2009 will be of great use to
decision makers, advisors and commentators in the business, public and
community sectors across New Zealand.
Peter Hughes
Chief Executive
Ministry of Social Development |
In the same
way as we report on New Zealand’s economic performance over time, The
Social Report 2009 provides a comprehensive picture of how New
Zealand is doing against a range of important social indicators.
It shows how we have performed over time.