Vulnerable children and families uses data from the New Zealand General Social Survey: 2010 to look at households with vulnerable children. Eleven economic, housing, health, and social indicators related to poor child outcomes were used to identify households with at-risk children. This report provides a national picture of the prevalence and characteristics of these households in New Zealand and provides context for current initiatives to support vulnerable children.
Key Results
The key points in this report are:
- 1 in 4 children under the age of 18 live in households defined in this report as medium or high risk, or those with three or more risk factors
- 6 percent of children live in high-risk households with five or more risk factors
- households in the high-risk group include those receiving benefit income, sole-parent households, large households, households with Māori respondents, and households where the mother had given birth to her child before the age of 21.