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February 24, 2017 at 10:12 AM

*From the Superu website*

Employment, education, health and housing: how do families compare across the regions? This was the question Superu addressed as part of its most recent research on families and whānau. The results are now available in a suite of regional factsheets on family wellbeing.

Overall, the study found that, while most New Zealand regions are fairly similar with differences being relatively small, some unique pictures emerged. Here are some of the highlights:

• Wellington family members were the most likely to have a post-secondary education (69.8% compared to 62.9% nationally), and also the most likely to have employment (83.4% vs. 80.4% nationally), first-equal only with Southland (83.5%).
• Southland families were more likely to have affordable housing than any other region (86% vs. 67.3% nationally), and family members were more likely to be satisfied with their working hours and pay (65.4% vs. 59% nationally).
• Auckland family members were the most likely to describe themselves as physically healthy (56% of respondents were above the median).
• Canterbury families were the most likely to live in well-off areas (66.7% vs. 54.1% nationally).
• Gisborne family members reported the highest prevalence in the country for voluntary work in the four weeks leading up to the Census (53.6% vs. 45.8% nationally) and for feeling safe at home (97.2% vs. 94.3% nationally); but they were also the least likely in the country to live in well-off neighbourhoods (29.2% vs. 54.1% nationally) or to report easy access to services (80.5% vs. 91.4% nationally).
• Overall, New Zealand families shared a high likelihood of having easy access to services, feeling safe at home and at work, and not experiencing discrimination.

Alongside wellbeing, the factsheets look also at the predominance of family types in each region, and their ethnicity. The regions covered are: Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Taranaki, Manawatu-Whanganui, Wellington, Marlborough & Nelson, West Coast & Tasman, Canterbury, Otago and Southland. A national factsheet is also available. You can find the suite of factsheets here.

This new regional information is based on the data published in Superu’s Families and Whānau Status Report 2016, which looked at the make-up and wellbeing of New Zealand families and whānau. The report drew on multiple datasets such as the Census, the General Social Survey, the Household Economic Survey, the Disability Survey and the Youth Survey. The 2016 report is available on Superu’s website. For more information on the regional data, please see Chapter 3 of theTechnical Companion Report.