Kiwis mainly happy with their lives, study finds

More than half of NZ families said they had problems with their homes.

Most New Zealanders are happy with their incomes, health and social lives - but more than half of childrearing-aged families have major problems with their housing.

That's the picture painted by the country's first "general social survey", a $3 million Statistics NZ exercise in which 8700 people answered almost 200 questions in interviews in their homes over the year to March.

The first results suggest that most New Zealanders rode out the early part of the recession with ease: 88 per cent said their health was "good" or better, 85 per cent said their income was enough for their needs, and 84 per cent felt isolated from others only "a little of the time" or never.

Asked "how do you feel about your life as a whole?" 86 per cent ticked one of the top two options, "satisfied" or "very satisfied".

Statistics NZ social conditions manager Conal Smith said this high level of satisfaction was "broadly comparable" with other countries which have run similar surveys, such as Australia, Britain and Canada.

But the survey's biggest black spot was housing. Just over half (51 per cent) said they had "major problems" with their house, flat, street or neighbourhood.

The questions were very broad. People were shown a card listing possible house problems as "too small", "hard to get to from the street", "in poor condition", "damp", "too cold or difficult to heat", "there are pests such as mice or insects" and "too expensive".

Another card listed possible problems with the street or neighbourhood as "too far from work", "too far from other things I want to get to", "not safe", "noise or vibration" and "air pollution from traffic fumes, industry or other smoke". Surprisingly, 49 per cent said they didn't suffer from any of these things.

The age breakdown points to real problems, especially in the prime childrearing age group. The numbers reporting major problems with housing or the neighbourhood rose from 54 per cent in the 15-24 group to peak at 61 per cent of the mainly young parent group aged 25 to 44.

Problems then fell away as the children left home to 48 per cent in the 45-64 age group and 32 per cent for the mainly retired group aged 65 and over.

Predictably, housing problems were worse for sole-parent families (64 per cent) than couples with children (54 per cent), worse for Maori and Pacific people (both 62 per cent) than for Europeans (49 per cent), and much worse for renters (66 per cent) than for home-owners (45 per cent).

The survey came a day after the Ministry of Social Development's annual Social Report found that 29 per cent of all households spent more than 30 per cent of their after-tax incomes on housing last year - it was 11 per cent 20 years ago.

Salvation Army social policy analyst Alan Johnson said: "Within the housing market, prices have run away from incomes. There has been an intergenerational shift in wealth as a consequence."

KNOWING MORE ABOUT OURSELVES

Other results from the survey included:

DISCRIMINATION
Almost a quarter of Asians (23 per cent), 16 per cent of Maori, 14 per cent of Pacific Islanders and 8 per cent of Europeans said they had "been treated unfairly or had something nasty done" to them in the past year "because of the group [they] belong to or seem to belong to".

INCOME
Almost a third of Pacific Islanders (31 per cent) said they did not have enough income to meet their "everyday needs for such things as accommodation, food, clothing and other necessities". The figures for others were 25 per cent of Maori, 20 per cent of Asians and 12 per cent of Europeans.

SAFETY
More than half (52 per cent) said they felt safe or very safe walking alone in their neighbourhood at night. Another 16 per cent felt "neither safe nor unsafe", and 32 per cent felt unsafe or very unsafe. Asians felt slightly less safe than others. A comparable Australian survey found that 48 per cent felt safe or very safe there, 34 per cent neither safe nor unsafe and only 18 per cent unsafe or very unsafe.

UNPAID WORK
Almost two-thirds (65 per cent) of New Zealanders, compared with only 49 per cent of Australians, had given unpaid help to people outside their homes in the previous month, such as cooking, cleaning, gardening or other work around the house, car repairs, tutoring, childcare or caring for people who were old, sick or disabled.

RECYCLING
Three-quarters (74 per cent) said they recycled most or all of the things that could be recycled and 54 per cent said they tried to minimise energy use most or all of the time.

See also www.stats.govt.nz/nzgss