Children and Young People: Indicators of Wellbeing in New Zealand 2008

Summary table of indicators

ISBN 978-0-478-33506-4 (Print) 
ISBN 978-0-478-33507-1 (Online)

The other sections and the appendices of the Children and Young People: Indicators of Wellbeing in New Zealand 2008 can be found at www.msd.govt.nz
Summary table of indicators

Indicator	Most recent level 
	Trend
J better
K same
L worse
 not updated
 not comparable
	Variation within the population	International comparison
J better
K same
L worse
 not comparable
	
Health					
Low birth weight births	5.8 percent of live births weighed less than 2,500 grams (2006)	K Little change between 1993 and 2006	Higher for Māori; regional differences	J Lower than OECD median
	
Infant mortality	5.1 infant deaths per 1,000 live births (2006)	J More than halved since 1988	Higher for Māori, Pacific infants; those in deprived areas; regional differences 	L Higher than OECD median
	
Immunisation	71 percent of children fully immunised at age two (2007)	J Improvement since 1991/1992	Lower for Māori children
	L Lower than OECD median
	
Hearing test failure at school entry	6.6 percent of primary school entrants failed hearing screening test (2005/2006)	J Improvement since 1991/1992	Higher for Māori and Pacific children; regional differences	 No comparison available	
Oral health
	Caries free at 5 years: 53 percent  (2006); average number of decayed, missing or filled teeth per child at 12 years (Year 8): 1.6 (2006)	K Caries free at  5 years: little change since 1990;  DMFT score at age 12 (Year 8): no change since 1997	Poorer outcomes for Māori and Pacific children; those in schools without fluoridated water	 (Caries free at 5 years)
L Higher than OECD median on DMFT index 	
Obesity 	8.4 percent of 5–14 year olds were obese (2006/07)	K No statistically significant change since 2002	Higher for Pacific, Māori, those in deprived areas	 No comparison available 	
Physical activity	55 percent of 15–24 year olds physically active (2006/07)	K No statistically significant change since 2002/03	Higher for males, lowest for Asian youth	 No comparison available 	
Cigarette smoking at 14–15 years
	13 percent of 14–15 year olds smoked cigarettes regularly (at least monthly ) (2007)	J Considerable improvement since 1999	Higher for females, Māori, those at low decile schools; regional differences 	 No comparison available 	
Youth suicide
	Suicide deaths: Three-year moving average rate of 18.1 per 100,000 15–24 year olds (2003–2005); Suicide attempts: 299.9 per 100,000 15–24 year olds (2006)	J Suicide death rate declined substantially from 1995–1997 to 2003–2005 but still higher than 1984–1986 rate
	Much higher suicide death rate for males and Māori; much higher attempted suicide rate for females 	L Male rate second highest and female rate third highest among 13 OECD countries

Care and support 					
Positive relationships with parents	More than 90 percent of students reported that Mum and Dad cared about them a lot (2001)	 No trend available	Lower proportion for Māori 	 No comparison available	
Witnessing violence in the home	In last 12 months, youth witnessing (1) adults hurting other adults: 6 percent; 
(2) adults hurting children: 16 percent; (3) adults yelling/swearing at other adults: 49 percent; (4) adults yelling/swearing at children: 48 percent	 No trend available	Māori, Pacific and Asian students more likely to witness adults hurting other adults;
Māori and Pacific students more likely to witness adults hurting a child;	 No comparison available	
Early childbearing
	31.6 births to females under 20 per 1,000 females aged 15–19 years (2007)	L Increased between 2002 and 2007, but lower than rate in early-to-mid 1990s.	Higher rates for Māori and Pacific and those in deprived areas; wide regional differences	L Fourth highest among 30 OECD countries in 2004–2006	
Education					
Children of parents without educational qualifications	12 percent of dependent children under 18 years lived in families in which no parent had a formal qualification (2006)	J Considerable improvement since 1986	Higher for Māori and Pacific children; children living in one-parent families	 No comparison available	
Participation in early childhood education
	‘Apparent’ participation rate of 97 percent for 3 year olds and 102 percent for 4 year olds (2007) 	J Continuous increase since 1988	Lower for Pacific and Māori children and those in low decile schools; regional differences	J Higher than OECD median
	
School truancy
	Standardised unjustified absence rate of 2.3 percent  of students enrolled (2006)	L Increased since 2004	Higher for Māori, Pacific and older students; those at low-decile schools; regional differences	 No comparison available	
Reading literacy at age 15	Combined mean reading literacy score of 521 (2006)	K No change between 2000 and 2006	Lower mean scores for Māori, Pacific and male students	J Higher than OECD average
	
Mathematical literacy at age 15	Mean score in mathematics literacy of 522 (2006)	K No change between 2003 and 2006	Lower mean scores for Māori and Pacific students 	J Higher than OECD average
	
Scientific literacy at age 15	Mean score in science literacy of 530 (2006) 	 Different method of measuring scientific literacy
	Lower mean scores for Māori and Pacific students	J Higher than OECD average
	
Retention of students in senior secondary schools	71.1 percent of students stayed on at school to age 17 (2006, individuals); 60.8 percent of all students stayed at school to age 17.5 (2007, aggregate)	K Little change in past four years; similar to level in 1992	Lower proportions for Māori, European, males, and those from low-decile schools	 No comparison available	
School leavers with higher qualifications	66 percent of school leavers gained NCEA Level 2+ (2007) 	J Improvement since 2003	Lower proportions for Māori, Pacific and male students, and those from low-decile schools 	 No comparison available	
Participation in tertiary education
	36.8 percent of 18–24 year olds enrolled at some time during 2007	K Steady	Lower proportions for Māori, Pacific, males	J Higher than OECD median for 18–24 year olds
	
Tertiary qualification completion	8.3 percent of 18–24 year olds in 2006 	K Steady	Lower for Māori, males	 No comparison available	
Economic security					
Children without a parent in paid work
	17 percent of children under 15 years had no parent in paid work in 2006	J Improved since 1991	Higher proportions for Māori, Pacific, children of sole parents	 No comparison available	
Children and young people with low incomes
	16 percent of children under 18 years, 17 percent of 18–24 year olds live in households with incomes below 60 percent of the 1998  median adjusted for inflation and housing costs (2007)	J Considerable improvement since 2004 (children under 18 years, young people 18–24 years )	Higher rates for children in sole-parent families, households with 3 or more children, and workless households	L Children: higher than OECD median (50 percent threshold) and Eurostat median (60 percent threshold)	
Unemployment
	Unemployment rate for 15–24 year olds: 9.7 percent in 2007 	J Improved since 1998, steady from 2004	Higher rates for 15–19 year olds, for Māori and Pacific peoples; regional differences 	J Lower than OECD average
	
Employment

	Employment rate for 15–24 year olds: 58.6 percent in 2007	K Steady	Lower rates for females, Māori, Pacific	J Higher than OECD average
	
Median hourly earnings
	Half of employees aged 15–19 years earned more than $11.25 an hour and half of employees aged 20–24 years earned more than $14.19 an hour (2007)	J Improved since 1997, particularly for 15–19 year olds since 2001	Lower for 15–19 year olds	 No comparison available	

Safety 					
Unintentional injury mortality
	9 children per 100,000 under 15 years died as a result of an unintentional injury (2005)	J Improved 	Higher rate for males, children under 5 years, Māori children 	 No comparison available	
Assault mortality 	Assault deaths in 2001–2005: 36 children under 15 years, five-year average rate of 0.8 per 100,000 0–14 year olds per year;  
62 15–24 year olds, five-year average rate of 2.2 per 100,000 15–24 year olds per year
	J 2001–2005 lower than 1996–2000 for children under 15
L 2001–2005 slightly higher than 1996–2000 for 15–24 year olds

Lower than 1986–1990 for both age groups	Higher for children under 5 years and Māori children;

15–24 years: higher for males and Māori	 No recent comparison available	
Bullying at school 	30 percent of secondary school students reported that they were bullied at school  in the last 12 months (2001) 	 No trend data available	Higher for younger students	K Similar to a range of mainly European countries	
Criminal victimisation	55 percent of 15–24 year olds were victims of crime (2005)	 Not comparable with earlier survey data	Victimisation of confrontational offences higher for Māori 
	 No comparison available	
Fear of crime	41 percent of 15–24 year olds reported that fear of crime had a moderate or high impact on their quality of life	 No trend data available	Higher for females, Other ethnic groups (in this case including Pacific and Asian)

	 No comparison available	
Road casualties
	10 deaths per 100,000 population under 25 years; 
21 deaths per 100,000 population 15–24 years (2007)
417 injuries per 100,000 aged under 25 years (2007)	J Road death rate: substantial decline since 1990; injury rate: substantial decline to 2000, little change since 2002	Higher for males, Māori	L Road death rate for 15–24 year olds above OECD median in 2006 (27 countries)	
Civil and political rights					
Voter turnout
	An estimated 76 percent of 18–24 year olds voted in the 2005 election; 85 percent of 18–29 year olds were registered on the electoral roll at the 2005 election	J Voter turnout and voter registration have fluctuated but were higher in 2005 than in 1987	Voter registration varied widely by electorate	 No comparison available	

Justice					
Police apprehensions of 14–16 year olds 	1,591 police apprehensions per 10,000 14–16 year olds (2006)	J Improved since 2003	Males and Māori over-represented	 No comparison available	
Cases proved in the Youth Court	88 cases proved per 10,000 14–16 year olds (2006)	J Improved since 2004 (new recording system in 2004 means not comparable with earlier years)	Males and Māori over-represented 	 No comparison available	
Culture and identity					
Te reo Māori speakers 	18 percent of Māori under 15 years and 23 percent of Māori aged 15–24 years able to speak te reo Māori (2006) 	L Census measure shows slight decline between 2001 and 2006	Higher for females, older age groups, those in regions with high proportions of Māori residents 	 No comparison available	
Language retention	Varied from 6 percent of Cook Islands Māori to 81 percent of Koreans aged under 25 years (2006)	K Little change for most groups between 2001 and 2006	Not relevant	 No comparison available	
Social connectedness					
Telephone/mobile access in the home	98 percent of children under 18 years and 97 percent of 18–24 year olds had access to a telephone in the home (2006) 	J Improved since 2001, particularly for Māori and Pacific children and young people	Lower for Māori, Pacific children and young people	 No comparison available	
Internet access in the home	70 percent of children under 18 years and 65 percent of 18–24 year olds had access to the internet at home (2006)	J Much improved since 2001, particularly for Māori and Pacific children and young people	Lower for Māori Pacific children and young people; one parent families, families without at least one parent employed full-time	J Higher than OECD average

Environment					
Children living with a parent who smokes	33 percent of dependent children under 18 years lived with at least one parent who was a regular  smoker (2006)	J Improved since 1996	Higher for Māori, Pacific children, children in one-parent families, young children	 No comparison available	
Household crowding	17 percent of children under 15 years and 17 percent of 15–24 year olds were living in crowded households (2006)	K Steady for children under 15; J Improved for 15–24 year olds	Higher for Pacific children and young people; wide regional differences	 No comparison available