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Child Poverty in New Zealand

MSD’s 2022 report uses Stats NZ’s Household Economic Survey (HES) to provide detailed information on:

  • the demographics of child poverty, with breakdowns by different household characteristics
  • what it means in practice day-to-day for children who are identified as ‘poor’ by one or more of the CPRA measures – using child-specific indicators
  • how New Zealand children are faring compared with their European counterparts
  • trends in material hardship and low-income rates for households with children
  • the interpretation of the high-level CPRA figures that Stats NZ publish each year.

The report is in two parts:

  • Part One – Wide range of detailed findings, with a special focus on the use of child-specific hardship indicators to paint a picture of ‘life below the line’.
  • Part Two – Several in-depth technical sections relating to measurement issues.

It complements the Stats NZ release on trends and progress to government targets, and is a resource for public discussion, research and policy development for addressing child poverty. It has no more up-to-date headline trend figures than were published by Stats NZ in February 2022. The 2021-22 update is scheduled by Stats NZ for February 2023.

Overview and Selected Findings

This is a shortened version of Part One of the full report, with very little technical material.