Purpose
New Zealand Living Standards 2004 not only updates the information in the series’ first report, New Zealand Living Standards 2000, but also significantly expands it by looking into a wider range of factors that can affect people’s wellbeing and living standards. Understanding the relationships between living standards and factors such as life history, personal health and access to childcare will help strengthen the social policy knowledge base, and it will improve our understanding of New Zealanders’ needs for social assistance and ways that assistance might best be targeted.
Moreover, this research has produced a rich source of data that will help researchers, policy makers across sectors, communities and government agencies to develop sound policies to address both living standards and wellbeing more generally. We would like to see this information used as widely as possible to improve understanding of New Zealand life, and we welcome enquiries from people who wish either to extend the research reported here or to use the data to look at new topics and questions.
The 2004 living standards survey had multiple purposes. Its overall objective was to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the living standards of New Zealanders by examining:
- how New Zealanders were faring in terms of living standards in 2004
- how living standards of New Zealanders had changed since 2000
- what factors are important in explaining variations in living standards.
Methodology
The analysis in this report is made possible by the development of a living standards measure that is applicable to the general population. The ELSI is based on what people are consuming, their various forms of recreation and social participation, their household facilities and so on, rather than being calculated from the resources (income, financial resources and assets) that enable them to do those things.
The ELSI scale is based on a large number of indicative items about a family’s household amenities, personal possessions, social and recreational activities, ability to have preferred foods, access to important services (eg medical treatment) and such like. It also includes three general selfratings, which enable people to give their own assessment of their standard of living, their satisfaction with their standard of living and the adequacy of their income to meet their everyday needs. Thus, although the majority of the scale items relate to specific activities, possessions, amenities, etc, the resulting scale also reflects people’s self-perceptions. The contribution of the self-ratings to the ELSI score is proportionately greater at the higher end of the scale than at the lower end. There is a considerable degree of concordance between the different types of information, this being one of the statistical conditions that was necessary for the scale to be specified.
Key Results
The ELSI scores for the population as a whole show that New Zealanders have a generally favourable distribution of living standards. More than three-quarters of the population have living standards that are comfortable or good.
Comparatively high average living standards scores are found among:
- New Zealanders aged 45 years and over (including those in receipt of New Zealand Superannuation)
- couples without children
- mortgage-free homeowners
- people with tertiary qualifications
- people working as legislators, administrators, managers or professionals and those in agricultural occupations
- people with income from self-employment
- people with equivalent disposable incomes of $30,001 or higher
- people with assets over $10,001
- people who have not had a marriage break-up
- people who have not experienced adverse life events (life shocks)
- people who do not have any restrictions in social and economic
- participation due to serious health problems
- people who do not have any types of payments which are causing
them financial difficulties.
In contrast, comparatively low average living standard scores are found among:
- low-income families with children
- Mäori and Pacific New Zealanders
- Housing New Zealand tenants
- people working in “elementary” (unskilled) occupations
- those receiving income-tested benefits
- New Zealanders with few or no assets
- women who have had a marriage break-up
- people who have had multiple life shocks
- people with multiple restrictions in social and economic participation
- due to serious health problems
- people with multiple types of payments that are causing them financial difficulties.
Of particular concern are the positions of beneficiary families with children, Pacific people and those renting from Housing New Zealand. These groups have low average living standards, with high proportions in “severe hardship”.