The Living Standards of Older New Zealanders
NILS, in partnership with Dr Peter Travers, School of Social Administration, has been involved in a major project with the New Zealand Ministry of Social Policy to assess the living standards of people in New Zealand aged 65 and over. A large survey was undertaken, and the results used to construct an index of standard of living. This index ranked everyone from those with the lowest standard of living to those with the highest. The factors that were correlated with having a higher standard of living were established through regression analysis. The main ones were net annual income, savings and investments, accommodation costs, age (older people were better off), economic stresses experienced in the 10 years prior to retirement, being of Maori or Pacific Island ethnicity, education and socio-economic status. Hardship was associated with having a number of negative attributes, rather than any one alone. Overall, there was a low level of hardship experienced by older New Zealanders. About 5% experienced quite severe hardship while another 5-10% had some difficulties.
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Communications Unit, Ministry of Social Policy, Private Bag 39993, Wellington, New Zealand
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