Summary of indicators

Health

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Health expectancy		Males 67.4 years Females 69.2 years (2006)	Improved, faster for males than for females	Lower for males and Māori	No comparison available
Life expectancy		Males 78.2 years Females 82.2 years (2006-2008)	Improved, faster for males than for females	Lower for males, Māori and those living in deprived areas	Average
Suicide		12.2 deaths per 100,000 (age-standardised rate for all ages) (2006)	Improved since 1998, similar to the 1986 level	Suicide deaths higher for males, youth, young adults and Māori; attempted suicide higher for females	Higher than average for all ages, particularly for youth
		Youth 15-24 years, 19.7 deaths per 100,000 (2006)
Cigarette smoking		23 per cent of population aged 15-64 years (2008)	15-64 years population: improved slightly  between 2006 and 2008	Higher rates among younger adults, Māori, Pacific peoples and those living in deprived areas	Good for males, poor for females
		21 per cent of population aged 15 years and over (2008)	15 years and over population: improved to 1991, steady to 2003, improved to 2007
Obesity		25 per cent of population aged 15 years and over (age-standardised rate) (2006/2007)	Increased since 1997 but no statistically significant increase in age-adjusted rate between 2002/2003 and 2006/2007	Higher for Pacific peoples, Māori, and people in deprived areas	Poor
		8 per cent of children aged 5-14 years (2006/2007)
Potentially hazardous drinking		22.9 percent of drinkers aged 15 years and over (2006/2007)	Similar to levels in 1996/1997 and 2002/2003	Higher among males, young people, Māori and Pacific people	Alcohol consumption average

Knowledge and Skills

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Participation in early childhood education		“Apparent” participation rate (licensed services): 93 per cent for 3 year olds and 99 per cent for 4 year olds (2008)	Improved	Māori and Pacific rates lower than European	No robust comparison available
School leavers with higher qualifications		66 percent of school leavers with NCEA Level 2 or above (2007)	No comparable longer-term trend available	Proportions lower for males, Māori and Pacific school leavers	No comparison available
Participation in tertiary education		12.5 per cent of population aged 15 years and over enrolled in tertiary education institutions (age-standardised rate) (2008)	Improved	Lower rates for males, higher for Māori at ages under 18 years and over 25 years	No direct comparison available for total population aged 15 years and over, good for 20-29 year olds
Educational attainment of the adult population		75 per cent of the population aged 25-64 years with at least an upper secondary qualification (2008)	Improved	Proportions lower for older people, women, Māori and Pacific peoples; Other adults (including Asians) had the highest proportion with tertiary qualifications	Average for upper secondary, good for tertiary
		21 per cent of the population aged 25-64 years with tertiary (bachelor’s degree+) qualifications (2008)
Adult literacy in English		56 per cent of 16-65 year olds with higher prose literacy skills (Level 3+);	Improvement since 1996 for prose and document literacy; no trend data for numeracy	Proportions lower for youngest and oldest age groups and ethnic groups other than New Zealand European	Similar to Australia, Canada, higher than United States
		57 per cent with higher document skills;
		49 per cent with higher numeracy skills (2006)

Paid Work

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Unemployment		4.5 per cent of the labour force (year to March 2009)	Improved since 1998 to mid-1980s levels	Higher rates for young people, Māori, Pacific peoples and Other ethnic groups	Good
Employment		74.6 per cent of the population aged 15-64 years (year to March 2009)	Improved since 1998 to above mid-1980s levels	Lower rates for young people, women, Māori, Pacific peoples and Other ethnic groups	Very good
Median hourly earnings		$18.75 an hour for wage and salary earners ($20.00 for males; $17.50 for females)(2008)	Improved	Lower for Māori, Pacific peoples, youth and females over 30 years	No comparison available
Workplace injury claims		122 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees (2007, provisional)	Improved since 2001	Higher rates for men, Māori and Pacific peoples	No comparison available
Satisfaction with work-life balance		78 per cent of employed people said they were satisfied with their work-life balance (2008)	Steady	Full-time employed people and people aged 35-54 years are less likely to be satisfied with their work-life balance	No comparison available

Economic Standard of Living

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Market income per person		RGNDI of $30,179 per person (in constant 1995/1996 dollars) (year to March 2009)	Improved since mid-1990s	Not measured	Below average
Income inequality		The equivalised disposable income of a household at the 80th percentile was 2.6 times larger than the income of a household at the 20th percentile (2008)	Around the same as the mid-1990s	Not relevant	Higher inequality than OECD median (around 2004)
Population with low incomes		14 per cent of population lives in households with incomes below 60 per cent of the median (2008)	Improved considerably since mid-1990s	Higher rates for children, sole-parent families and large families	Average
Housing affordability		29 per cent of households spend more than 30 per cent of income on housing (2008)	Improved from 1998 to 2004 but worsened between 2004 and 2008	Higher proportions among low-income households, Pacific peoples and  Other ethnic groups	No comparison available
Household crowding		10 per cent of individuals live in households requiring one or more additional bedrooms (2006)	Improved	More common among families with young children, youth, people in rental housing, Māori and Pacific peoples and in Manukau City	No comparison available

Civil and Political Rights

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Voter turnout (general elections) Voter turnout (local authority elections)		76 per cent of the population eligible to vote (2008)	Fallen	Non-voters more likely to be on lower incomes, younger people, Māori or Pacific peoples	Above average for general election
		44 per cent of enrolled electors (2007)	Fallen
Representation of women in government		34 per cent of seats in Parliament (2008 general election)	Improved	Not relevant	Very good for central government
		32 per cent of elected members (2007 local authority elections)	Improved
Representation of ethnic groups in government		25 per cent of MPs identified as Māori, Pacific peoples or Asian	Improved	Pacific peoples and Asians under-represented	No comparison available
Perceived discrimination		Asians most common group perceived to be subject to discrimination (2008)	Improved	Since 2001, perceptions of discrimination lower for 8 out of 11 groups	No comparison available
Perceived corruption		New Zealand ranked first equal as least corrupt nation with a Corruption Perceptions Index score of 9.3 (2008)	Steady	Not relevant	Very good

Cultural Identity

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Local content programming on New Zealand television		42 per cent of the prime-time schedule (2008)	Improved	Not relevant	Below average
Māori language speakers		24 per cent of Māori report ability to converse in Māori (2006)	Slightly lower in 2006 than in 2001	Speakers more likely to be older	Not relevant
Language retention		Varied from 16 per cent of Cook Islands Māori to 84 per cent of Koreans (2006)	Little change for most ethnic groups	Not relevant	No comparison available

Leisure and Recreation

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Satisfaction with leisure time		75 per cent of the population aged 15 years and over are satisfied overall with their leisure time (2008)	Steady	Those aged 25-54 years and Asians report lower satisfaction rates	No comparison available
Participation in physical activity		51 per cent of the population aged 15 years and over were physically active (age-standardised rate) (2006/2007)	Steady	Women, Asians and older people were less likely to be physically active than men and young people	No comparison available
Participation in cultural and arts activities		93 per cent of the population aged 15 years and over took part in cultural activities (2001/2002)	No trend available	Higher participation rates among young people and Mäori	No comparison available

Physical Environment

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Air quality		Auckland below guideline (2008)	Fluctuating	Not reported	Similar to sites in the Australian regions of Port Phillip (including Melbourne and Sydney)
		Hamilton below guideline (2008)	Steady
		Wellington below guideline (2008)	Improved
		Christchurch at guideline (2008)	Improved
		Dunedin above guideline (2008)	Fluctuating, but improving overall
Drinking water quality		E. coli compliance 83 percent (2007/2008)	Improved	Not reported	No comparison available
		Cryptosporidium compliance 66 percent (2007/2008)	Improved	Not reported	No comparison available

Safety

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Assault mortality		All ages: Age-standardised rate of 1.6 deaths per 100,000 people (2006, provisional)	Improved since early 1990s	Highest among males, youth aged 15-24 years and Māori	Homicide death rates higher than median for males and considerable higher for females
		Children under 15 years: five-year average annual rate of 0.8 deaths per 100,000 (2002-2006)	Improved
Criminal victimisation		39 per cent of population aged 15 years and over were victims of criminal offending, either as individuals or members of households (2005)	No trend available	Young people, Māori and Pacific peoples more likely to have been a victim of crime	No reliable comparison available
Fear of crime		40 per cent of adults said that fear of crime had a moderate or high impact on their quality of life (2005)	No trend available	Fear higher among females, Asians, Māori, Pacific peoples and those in socio-economically deprived areas	No comparison available
Road casualties		8.6 deaths per 100,000 population (2008)	Improved	High rates among men, young people, Māori and those aged 65 years and over	Average for road deaths
		352 injuries per 100,000 population (2008, provisional)	Improved since mid-1980s

Social Connectedness

Indicators	Current level of updated indicators (most recent year) and the change from the previous result better same worse not updated not comparable		Longer- term change	Variation within the population	Comparison with the OECD
Telephone and internet access in the home		Telephone 98 per cent (2006)	Big improvement for internet access	Access less likely among Māori and Pacific families, families with unemployed adults and sole-parent families	Above average for internet
		Internet access 66 per cent (2006)
Regular contact with family/friends		70 per cent of adults had family or friends over for dinner at least once a month in the previous year (2004)	Steady	Sharing a meal at home less common among those not in full-time employment	No comparison available
Trust in others		78 per cent of people aged 15 years and over reported that people can be trusted (2008)	Steady	Māori, Pacific peoples, Asians and those with incomes less than $30,000 reported lower levels of trust	Good
Loneliness		16 per cent of people aged 15 years and over reported having felt lonely in the past 12 months (2008)	Steady	Pacific peoples, Asians, females and people who rated their health as poor reported higher levels of loneliness	No comparison available
Contact between young people and their parents		57 per cent of secondary school students said they spent enough time with their Mum and/or Dad (2007)	Fallen	Māori, Pacific and Asian students more likely to report not getting enough time with their Mum and/or Dad	No comparison available