An older lady holding a cat.

New Zealand Living Standards 2000

This report was published in 2002 with the companion Direct Measurement of Living Standards. It is a description of the living standards of the total population based on data collected using the Economic Living Standard Index (ELSI). It provides a broad description of the living standards of New Zealanders and examines the distribution for the population as a whole and for groups that have been a focus for social policy analysis and interventions.


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Chapter 1: Introduction and background
Chapter 2: The Economic Living Standard Index


Chapter 3: An overview of the living standards of the total population
Chapter 4: The living standards of the Maori population


Chapter 5: The living standards of the New Zealand Pacific population
Chapter 6: Families with dependent children


Chapter 7: Living standards of the low-income population
Chapter 8: Concluding comments and References


Appendix A: Characteristics of population by living standards categories
Appendix B: Summary of effective sample sizes and confidence intervals
Appendix C: ELSI Items and Score Calculation


Erratum: These pdf files have been updated to correct minor errors identified in the hard copy (printed version) of this report

Chapter 3:
Figure 3.8 (page 51), the last histogram now reads 'couple only' not 'single person'.
In figure 3.9 (page 52), the last histogram now reads 'couple only' not 'single person'.
In figure 3.10 (page 53), the fourth histogram now reads 'secondary and minor urban' not 'secondary and other major urban'.

Chapter 5:
In Figure 5.9 (page 104), the second row now reads 'Pacific mean ELSI score' not 'Maori mean ELSI score'.