Changes in wellbeing for selected population groups

In this section, we look at changes in social outcomes over time for various population groups in New Zealand, and we compare their outcomes with those of the total New Zealand population. We focus on changes since the mid-1990s where possible, as well as on more recent changes.

It is important to note that comparisons are for population group averages: there is a lot of variation within groups. For example, the risk of poor outcomes often varies by age: younger people have higher rates of unemployment, potentially hazardous drinking, suicide death and road accident death, and they have lower incomes than people in older age groups. For Māori and Pacific peoples, poor outcomes relative to those of the total New Zealand population may be partly attributable to the younger age structure of these ethnic groups. This should be kept in mind when comparing outcomes between groups for indicators where the data has not been age standardised.

Māori

For most indicators, outcomes for Māori have improved since the mid-1990s

Most of the indicators for which we have time series data show improvements in wellbeing for Māori. In several instances, improvements have been greater for Māori than for the total population, including life expectancy, participation in tertiary education, employment and median hourly earnings. Despite improvements in these areas and others, average outcomes for Māori tend to be poorer than average outcomes for the total population.

Life expectancy at birth improved more for Māori than for non-Māori between 1995–1997 and 2005–2007. While this reduced the gap in life expectancy between Māori and non-Māori, the gap remains large.

Since 1996, suicide death rates have shown no obvious trend for Māori, although the small numbers of Māori suicide deaths make it hard to ascertain trends. The suicide death rate is higher for Māori than for non-Māori.

Smoking remains high among Māori, particularly Māori women, who have the highest cigarette smoking rate of any ethnic group in New Zealand. Among 14–15 year olds, Māori girls continue to have the highest daily smoking rate, although the rate halved between 1999 and 2009 (from 36 percent to 18 percent). The rate for Māori boys more than halved over the decade (from 24 percent to 11 percent).

In the Knowledge and Skills domain, outcomes for Māori have improved strongly in recent years. The increase in participation in early childhood education between 2000 and 2009 was greater for Māori children than for all school entrants, reducing the participation gap. Between 2003 and 2008, Māori students showed the greatest improvement in the proportion of students leaving secondary school with a qualification at NCEA Level 2 or above, but they have the lowest level of educational attainment at this level. Māori have had the highest participation rate in tertiary education of any ethnic group since 2001. Māori tertiary education participation is higher than average at older age groups and in Levels 1–3 certificate courses. The proportion of Māori adults with tertiary qualifications at bachelor’s degree level or above has more than trebled since the mid-1990s. Despite this substantial improvement, Māori are around half as likely as adults in general to have tertiary qualifications at degree level. Improvements in prose and document literacy in English between 1996 and 2006 were similar for Māori adults and adults in the total population. Māori are less likely than average to have literacy or numeracy skills at Level 3 or above.

The unemployment rate for Māori has halved since the mid-1990s; it fell to a record low in the year ended December 2007 but increased slightly in 2008 and more sharply in 2009. The Māori unemployment rate was the highest of any ethnic group from 1995 to 2008 but it was similar to the rate for Pacific peoples in 2009. Māori youth had the second highest unemployment rate among youth aged 15–24 years in 2009. The employment rate for Māori increased strongly over the past decade, reaching a record high in the year ended December 2008. Although it fell in 2009, the Māori employment rate remained considerably higher than it was in the mid-1990s, but it was still well below the average for the total population.

The real median hourly earnings of Māori increased by 25 percent between June 1997 and June 2009; this was more than the increase for all earners over the period (21 percent). The ratio of Māori to European median hourly earnings was 88 percent in 2009. In 2008, the rate of work-related injury claims for Māori was similar to the average rate. Because of a break in the series for work-related injury claims by ethnicity, it is not possible to assess trends over time. Employed Māori were about as likely as employees generally to be satisfied with their work-life balance in 2008.

In the Economic Standard of Living domain, median household incomes for Māori improved over the decade to 2009. The proportion of households with at least one Māori adult spending more than 30 percent of their disposable income on housing was lower in 2009 than in 1998.

Māori representation in Parliament declined between the 2005 and 2008 general elections, but remains higher than the representation of Pacific peoples and Asian ethnic groups and is similar to the Māori share of the total population.

In the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey, around one in six Māori aged 15 years and over said they had been discriminated against in the past year, compared to the population average of one in 10 people.

Māori attendance at arts events in 2008 was slightly higher than the average for all people aged 15 years and over, and Māori active participation in arts and cultural activities was much higher than average. The proportion of Māori who were satisfied with their leisure time was similar to the population average.

Māori continue to have poorer outcomes in the Safety domain. The assault mortality rate for Māori has fluctuated since 1996, with no clear trend. In 2007 Māori adults and Māori children remained considerably more likely than non-Māori adults and children to die from an assault or intentional injury. The rate of death from motor vehicle accidents has changed little for Māori since 2000, while the rate for non-Māori has declined. In 2007, Māori were around two and a half times as likely as non-Māori to die in motor vehicle accidents.

In 2008, Māori reported a slightly lower than average level of trust in people and a higher than average level of loneliness. In 2007, Māori secondary school students were less likely than students overall to report that most of the time they get enough time with Mum and/or Dad. In 2008, Māori adults were the least likely to feel the amount of contact they have with family and friends is about right.

In the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey (NZGSS), the rate of voluntary work for a group or organisation was about the same for Māori as for the total population aged 15 years and over.

More than four in five Māori adults (82 percent) were satisfied with their life overall in 2008.

Figure SU.3 Social wellbeing for Māori, 1995–1997 or 2000–2002 to 2007–2009

Pacific peoples

Most indicators for Pacific peoples have improved since the mid-1990s

Pacific peoples, like Māori, have experienced gains in wellbeing since the mid-1990s. While a number of these improvements have been greater than those for the total New Zealand population, Pacific peoples’ outcomes overall are poor compared to those of the total population.

A positive trend in the Health domain is the significant reduction in smoking among Pacific youth. The daily smoking rate of Pacific youth aged 14–15 years fell by around two-thirds between 1999 and 2009 (from 23 percent to 7 percent for girls, and from 17 percent to 6 percent for boys). This is the only new information on the health of Pacific peoples in this year’s report. Pacific adults had the second highest cigarette smoking rate, after Māori, in 2008. They had the highest obesity rate in 2006/2007 and shared the highest potentially hazardous drinking rate with Māori in the same year.

There have been considerable gains in educational participation for Pacific peoples over the past decade. The proportion of children who attended early childhood education before starting primary school increased at a faster rate for Pacific children than for all school entrants between 2000 and 2009. However, Pacific children continue to have the lowest participation rate at this level of education. Pacific peoples also had the largest increase in tertiary education participation between 2001 and 2009. In the latest year their overall participation rate was similar to that of Europeans, although higher proportions of Pacific students were enrolled in Levels 1–3 certificate courses.

Education outcomes have also improved. The proportion of Pacific students leaving secondary school with a qualification at NCEA Level 2 or above increased strongly between 2003 and 2008 but remained the second lowest proportion. The proportion of Pacific adults with tertiary qualifications increased more than threefold between the mid-1990s and 2009. Despite this substantial improvement, Pacific peoples were less than a third as likely as adults in general to have tertiary qualifications at degree level in 2009.

The proportion of Pacific adults with prose and document literacy in English at Level 3 or above declined between 1996 and 2006, against an upward trend for the total population. Pacific adults in 2006 were around half as likely as adults in general to have prose and document literacy skills in English at Level 3 or above, and around a third as likely to have numeracy skills at these levels.

All three indicators in the Paid Work domain for which there is data for Pacific peoples show a strong improvement in outcomes since the mid-1990s, despite a deterioration in the most recent two years. The unemployment rate for Pacific peoples fell markedly from the mid-1990s to 2005. It increased slightly over the following three years, then almost doubled between the December 2008 and 2009 years. Pacific youth had the highest unemployment rate among youth aged 15–24 years in 2009. The employment rate for Pacific peoples grew fairly steadily over the decade to 2008 but fell sharply in 2009. For Pacific peoples in wage and salary jobs, real median hourly earnings increased by 7 percent between 2008 and 2009, compared to 4 percent for all wage and salary earners. Pacific peoples reported a lower than average level of satisfaction with their work-life balance in 2008. Pacific peoples had the highest rate of work-related injury claims in 2008.

Median household incomes for Pacific peoples improved over the decade to 2009. Housing affordability also improved. The proportion of households with at least one Pacific adult spending more than 30 percent of their disposable income on housing was lower in 2009 than in 1998.

In the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey, around one in seven Pacific people aged 15 years and over said they had been discriminated against in the past year, compared to the population average of one in 10 people.

In 2008, Pacific adults reported lower than average levels of trust in others and higher than average levels of loneliness. Pacific secondary school students were less likely than students on average to report they got enough time with one or both of their parents. In 2008, Pacific adults were about as likely as adults generally to feel the amount of contact they have with family and friends is about right.

In the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey, Pacific peoples had the highest rate of voluntary work for a group or organisation.

Four in five Pacific adults (80 percent) were satisfied with their life overall in 2008.

Figure SU.4 Social wellbeing for Pacific peoples, 1995–1997 or 2000–2002 to 2007–2009

Asian and other ethnicities

Outcomes for Asian and other ethnicities are mixed

A small number of indicators in this report include information for ethnic groups other than European, Māori and Pacific peoples. Some surveys report separate data for Asian people, and larger surveys sometimes provide a further breakdown for smaller groups, referred to collectively as the “Other” ethnic group. In other cases, data for Asian and the smaller ethnic groups are combined into a single category. For example, in the Household Labour Force Survey data used in this report, this combined group comprises Asian peoples, Middle Eastern, Latin American and African peoples (MELAA), and Other (including ‘New Zealander’). For brevity, we refer to the combined group as Asian/MELAA/Other in this section. This inconsistency between data sources should be taken into account when assessing outcomes for these population groups. The diverse and changing make-up of these ethnic group categories probably contributes to the mixed outcomes evident in the results.

In the Health domain, Asian peoples aged 15–64 years had the lowest cigarette smoking rate of all ethnic groups in 2008, around half that of the total population in that age group.

Participation in early childhood education grew faster for Asian children and children from the Other ethnic group, than for all children between 2000 and 2009. In 2009, these children were about as likely as children in general to have attended an early childhood education service before going to primary school. The proportion of Asian secondary school leavers with a qualification at NCEA Level 2 or above increased from 2003 to 2008 and was consistently the highest for all ethnic groups. For school leavers in the MELAA/Other ethnic group category, the improvement was greater but the proportion with NCEA Level 2 or above remained close to the average for all students.

Asian peoples aged 15 years and over had the second highest tertiary education participation rate in 2009 (after Māori), and the highest participation rate for degree level qualifications. Adults from Asian/MELAA/Other ethnic groups are the most likely to have tertiary qualifications at bachelor’s degree level or higher, almost double the proportion for all adults aged 25–64 years in 2009. The proportion of Asian adults with prose and document literacy skills in English at Level 3 or above increased between 1996 and 2006 but remained lower than the average for all adults. The proportion of Asian adults with numeracy skills in English at these levels was also lower than average in 2006.

The unemployment rate for the Asian/MELAA/Other ethnic group has fallen substantially since the mid-1990s but it increased in 2008 and 2009 and remains higher than the rate for the total labour force. Growth in the employment rate for this group was faster than average from the mid-1990s to 2007 but it levelled off in 2008 and 2009.

The median hourly earnings for wage and salary earners in the Asian and MELAA ethnic groups ranked second behind the median hourly earnings for Europeans in 2009. Between 2008 and 2009, the Asian and MELAA ethnic groups experienced a 5 percent increase in real median hourly earnings from wage and salary jobs, similar to the 4 percent increase for all wage and salary earners. The rate of work-related injury claims for the Other (including Asian) ethnic group in 2008 was higher than the rate for all full-time equivalent employees for that year.

Median household incomes and housing affordability for the Other (including Asian) ethnic group improved between the mid-1990s and 2009. The proportion of households with at least one adult from the Other (including Asian) ethnic group spending more than 30 percent of their disposable income on housing was lower in 2009 than in 1998.

Asian people were again the group most likely to be perceived as being subject to a great deal or some discrimination in 2009. In the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey, more than one in five Asians aged 15 years and over said they had been discriminated against, the highest proportion of any ethnic group.

In 2008, people of the Asian ethnic group reported lower than average levels of trust in others, and were more likely than people in general to report having felt isolated or lonely in the past 12 months. In the same year, Asian adults had the highest proportion who said the amount of contact they have with family and friends is about right. But in 2007, Asian secondary school students were less likely than all secondary school students to report they got enough time with one or more of their parents.

More than four in five Asian people (84 percent) were satisfied with their life overall in 2008.

Sex differences

Outcomes are generally better for females than for males in the Health and Knowledge and Skills domains, but are mixed in other domains

Sex differences in social wellbeing vary between and within the domains in this report. Outcomes are generally better for females than for males in the Health and Knowledge and Skills domains, but are mixed in other domains such as Paid Work and Safety. In some areas, sex differences have narrowed in recent years.

For most of the indicators in the Health domain, females had better outcomes than males. On average, females live longer than males, but the sex difference in life expectancy is decreasing, reflecting greater gains for males since the mid-1980s. There is a marked sex difference in the suicide death rate: in 2007, the rate for males was more than three times that for females. The male suicide death rate increased sharply in the late-1980s but it has declined since the mid-1990s, while the female rate has been relatively stable over the last 20 years. Females have a higher rate of hospitalisation from intentional self-harm than males. There was no significant difference in obesity rates between the sexes in 2006/2007. Obesity rates have increased more for males than for females since the mid-1990s. Cigarette smoking rates for females and males have generally been similar since the mid-1980s, but in 2008 the age-standardised rate was higher for males than for females. However, among 14–15 year olds, girls continue to have higher smoking rates than boys. In 2006/2007, male drinkers were more than twice as likely as female drinkers to have a potentially hazardous drinking pattern, as they were in 1996/1997 and 2002/2003.

In the Knowledge and Skills domain, most indicators continue to show better outcomes for females than for males, although differences have narrowed in recent years. There is little sex difference in participation in early childhood education, but females are more likely than males to leave secondary school with NCEA Level 2 or above and to participate in tertiary education. The sex difference in tertiary participation widened over the decade to 2004 but it has since narrowed because the decline in enrolments over the 2005–2009 period was greater for females than for males. For the adult population aged 25–64 years, sex differences in educational attainment have narrowed over time as a result of greater improvements for females, particularly at younger ages. Since 2003, women in the 25–34 years age group have been more likely than men of that age to have a tertiary degree at bachelor’s level or above. The opposite is the case in the 55–64 years age group.

In adult literacy in English, there was no significant sex difference in prose literacy at Level 3 or above in 2006 but all of the improvement in higher prose literacy over the previous decade was due to increases for males. Males were significantly more likely than females to have numeracy skills at Level 3 or above. There was no sex difference in document literacy for all adults aged 16–65 years. However, among adults aged under 25 years, a higher proportion of females than of males had higher document skills, while at ages 45 years and over the pattern was reversed.

Outcomes are mixed in the Paid Work domain. Unemployment rates were similar for males and females in the year ended December 2009, having been higher for females than for males between 2002 and 2007 and higher for males than for females during the peak years of unemployment in the early 1990s. Men are more likely to be employed than women, but the employment rate gap has narrowed. This is because female employment rates increased more than male employment rates between 2002 and 2007, and declined less than those of males between 2007 and 2009. Among wage and salary earners, males earn more, on average, than females. The ratio of female to male median hourly earnings was 89 percent in 2009, compared to 83 percent in 1997. Males are around twice as likely as females to suffer work-related injuries involving a claim to ACC. Employed males and females have similar rates of satisfaction with their work-life balance, with part-time workers of both sexes having higher levels of satisfaction than full-time workers.

Between 1998 and 2009, females were slightly more likely than males to be living in households with low incomes. The pattern over time was less clear for housing affordability. In 2009 there was no difference by sex in the proportion of people aged 15 years and over living in households that were spending more than 30 percent of their disposable income on housing. There is very little difference by sex in the likelihood of living in crowded households.

There are fewer female than male Members of Parliament, although the proportion increased in the 2008 general election. Similarly, female representation in local authorities is lower than that of males, but it increased in the 2007 elections. Women are more likely than men to be perceived as a group subject to discrimination and the proportion of people with this perception increased between 2008 and 2009. In the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey, overall rates of personal discrimination were similar for males and females, but females were around twice as likely as males to cite gender discrimination as the reason.

In 2006/2007, males were significantly more likely than females to meet physical activity guidelines. There was no change in physical activity levels for either sex from the previous survey in 2002/2003. In 2008, there was very little difference between the sexes in reported satisfaction with leisure time. Women and men had similar levels of attendance at arts events and participation in arts and cultural activities in 2008.

In the Safety domain, males and females were equally likely to experience some form of criminal victimisation in 2005. With confrontational offences, men were as likely as women to have been victimised at least once by a partner, but women experienced more offences than men did. Females were twice as likely as males to be the victims of sexual offences, while males were more likely to be the victims of confrontational offences by people they did not know. Women were more likely than men to report that fear of crime impacted on their quality of life. Males are more likely than females to die from an assault or intentional injury and they are more likely to be injured or killed in motor vehicle accidents. Although road accident deaths have declined substantially for both sexes, the male road user death rate remained double that for females in 2009.

In the Social Connectedness domain, men and women reported a similar level of trust in others in 2008, but women were more likely than men to have felt lonely during the past 12 months. There is little difference between men and women in having access to the internet and a telephone in their homes except at older ages, where women were less likely than men to have internet access. In 2008, there was no sex difference in the proportion of adults who felt the amount of contact they have with family and friends is about right. Among secondary school students, females were less likely than males to report that most of the time they get enough time with at least one parent, and this sex difference increased between 2001 and 2007. In the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey, there was no difference by sex in the proportion of adults who had done voluntary work for groups or organisations in the past four weeks.

Males (85 percent) and females (86 percent) reported similarly high levels of overall life satisfaction in 2008.

Figure SU.5 Social wellbeing for females relative to males, 2007–2009

Socio-economic differences

People living in deprived areas generally experience poorer outcomes, particularly in health

Seventeen indicators in this report include information on differences in wellbeing outcomes by socio-economic status. Two different area-based measures of socio-economic difference are used: the New Zealand Index of Deprivation (NZDep), and the Ministry of Education’s school decile index.¹¹⁹ For some indicators, the measures of socio-economic differences are based on the distribution of individual or household incomes.

Health-related outcomes tend to worsen with rising levels of neighbourhood deprivation. Life expectancy at birth is considerably lower for people living in NZDep2006 decile 10 areas (the most deprived 10th of small areas in New Zealand) than for those living in decile 1 areas (the least deprived 10th). In 2005–2007, the difference was 8.8 years for males and 5.9 years for females.

The prevalence of cigarette smoking in 2008 was almost three times higher for people aged 15–64 years living in the most deprived fifth of areas than for those living in the least deprived fifth. Among 14–15 year olds in 2009, daily smoking rates were four times higher for girls and more than twice as high for boys at low-decile schools (those drawn from low socio-economic communities) than for boys and girls at high-decile schools. In 2006/2007, the prevalence of obesity and potentially hazardous drinking among people aged 15 years and over were both significantly higher in NZDep2006 quintile 5 areas (the most deprived fifth) than in all other areas (quintiles 1–4). On the other hand, there was no association between the proportion of people who met physical activity guidelines and the level of neighbourhood deprivation.

Year 1 students in schools drawn from low socio-economic communities are less likely to have attended early childhood education services than Year 1 students in schools drawn from high socio-economic communities. School leavers from low decile secondary schools are less likely to have a qualification at NCEA Level 2 or above than school leavers from high decile schools.

Housing affordability is an issue of particular concern for low-income households as high housing costs relative to income can mean there is insufficient income left to meet other basic needs, such as food, transport and heating in winter. In 2009, the proportion of households in the lowest 20 percent (lowest quintile) of the equivalised household income distribution spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing was 33 percent, compared to 27 percent for all New Zealand households.

In 2006, households in the lowest fifth of household incomes (adjusted for household size and composition) were five times more likely to be crowded than households in the highest fifth of household incomes.

In 2005, people living in the most deprived areas of New Zealand (NZDep quintile 5) were more likely than people living in the least deprived areas to report being victims of crime. They were also more likely to report that fear of crime affected their quality of life.

Some indicators show an association between levels of personal income and wellbeing outcomes, although there is no clear pattern. In 2008, full-time employees with personal incomes of $30,000 or less had the highest level of satisfaction with work-life balance across the income scale. Satisfaction with leisure time was also highest for people in this income group, although in this case the proportion included people of retirement age and students. In the same year, people with personal incomes over $100,000 reported the highest overall level of trust and the lowest level of loneliness. In the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey, people with personal incomes of $70,001 or more were significantly more likely to report having done voluntary work than those with incomes of $30,000 or less. But there was little variation by income in personal experience of discrimination, and no difference by income in the proportion of adults who said the amount of contact they have with family and friends is about right. Finally, the 2008 survey on New Zealanders and the arts found no substantial relationship between income and participation in the arts.