Kiwis happier and longer-lived | NATIONAL | NEWS

Send to friend

Email update

Sponsored Links

Kiwis happier and longer-lived

Aug 22, 2004 10:19 AM

New Zealanders are living longer, are more highly educated and less likely to be unemployed, compared with the mid 1990s.

The annual snapshot of the nation is contained in the Ministry of Social Development's Social Report. It shows 80% of New Zealanders are satisfied or very satisfied with their lives and most believe that people can be trusted.

The average life expectancy is 76.3 years for New Zealand men and 81.1 years for women.

The Ministry's strategic social policy group spokesperson David Rea says New Zealand is in the top half of OECD countries for most of the indicators that can be compared.

However, it is not all good news.

Rea says the country isn't performing so well compared to other countries in terms of per capita incomes, suicide, obesity and rates of child deaths by maltreatment.

The report shows that 17% of New Zealanders over the age of 15 are obese and those rates are increasing.

Our child abuse statistics also make bad reading, with 7.4 cases of abuse per 1000 children aged under 16. This puts New Zealand near the bottom of the 27 OECD countries.

New Zealand also has the highest male suicide rate in the survey, however the report notes that the problem is improving.

Almost a third of respondents also reported feeling unsafe walking alone in their neighbourhood at night.

Average hourly earnings have increased by 10% in the last six years, however, they still compare poorly with those of other OECD countries.