Social Progress Imperative, whose advisory board is led by Harvard economist Michael Porter, has placed Norway at the top of its latest ranking of 133
Social Progress Imperative, whose advisory board is led by Harvard economist Michael Porter, has placed Norway at the top of its latest ranking of 133
A high rate of "early marriage" has stripped New Zealand of its 2014 title of the world's "most socially advanced" nation, pulling the country down to fifth place in this year's ranking by a Washington-based think-tank.
Social Progress Imperative, whose advisory board is led by Harvard economist Michael Porter, has placed Norway at the top of its latest ranking of 133 countries based on 51 indicators of "social progress".
But the think-tank's director, Michael Green, said New Zealand outperformed all other developed countries in its social progress relative to its economic performance.
New Zealand's economic ranking was only 23rd, with a gross domestic product barely half of Norway's, yet its level of social progress was almost as high.
New Zealand scored first or first-equal for personal rights and access to water and sanitation, third on access to basic education, and fifth on "tolerance and inclusion" of immigrants, homosexuals, minorities and religions.
But the country was dragged down by low rankings on several health indicators, including the death rate of children under 5 (34th), suicide (79th) and obesity (117th).
Our other big black mark this year was a surprise new measure - "early marriage" of girls aged 15 to 19. New Zealand's early marriage rate of 8.2 per cent was higher than all other OECD countries except Mexico (16 per cent) and Turkey (9.6 per cent), ranking us 62nd between Ghana and Azerbaijan.
However, New Zealand's poor score on this measure was mainly because its figure of 8.2 per cent from the 2006 Census included women who lived with a "partner or de facto, boyfriend or girlfriend" (7.8 per cent), as well as the 0.4 per cent who were legally married.
Only eight OECD countries included non-legal partners. New Zealand's overall partnership rate was the second-highest of those eight.
Statistics NZ demographer Dr Robert Didham said the fact that our Census counted all partnerships was itself "an important advance in terms of social freedom of choice".
"Personally I don't see that, in itself, early marriage is a problem area, unless you read it in terms of the other countries where they have forced marriage," he said.
Waikato medical officer of health Dr Felicity Dumble, who chairs the national Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee, said New Zealand's high child death rate was partly due to high rates of sudden infant death syndrome, but an intensive campaign was tackling the problem.
"There is increasing awareness regarding safe sleeping advice - face up, face clear, smoke-free. Those messages are going out there and that is actually making quite a difference," she said.
Total deaths in the age group covered by her committee, from one month to 24 years, dropped from 700 a year in 2002 to about 500 a year now, she said.
Other indicators where New Zealand's ranking has dropped since last year appear to be statistical quirks. For example, only 82.8 per cent of New Zealanders are now counted as using the internet (16th ranking), down from 89.5 per cent last year, because the data now comes from Statistics NZ instead of the former Ministry of Economic Development.
Norah Herbert and Storm Peters with their 18-month-old son, Cassius-Lee Herbert-Peters. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Storm Peters and Norah Herbert have been partners since they met as 15-year-olds at Manurewa's James Cook High School.
Storm, a few months older, was in Year 12; Norah was in Year 11.
"It was a wee bit of a flirtation, I reckon," said Storm, who has just turned 18.
"My sister introduced us. From there, we used to get smart to each other, a little teasing and a bit of flirtation.
And one day I went down for a holiday to Tokoroa and she came down with my family to spend time with my sister, and we just spent a lot of time with each other."
Three months after they got together, the relationship suddenly became serious when Norah discovered she was pregnant.
Storm said: "I was at school and in my automotive class and she just dropped the news through a text, which was quite random. I didn't know what to do. Lunchtime came and we sat down and talked. It was a bit weird."
They considered an abortion but rejected it.
"I just stepped up as a future father and said we'll keep the baby. She was happy with that," says Storm.
The young couple and son Cassius-Lee Herbert-Peters, now 18 months, live with Storm's father, a cousin of NZ First leader Winston Peters.
Storm, a talented dancer, completed Year 13 at James Cook last year and has applied for a dance course at Best Pacific Education. He has also been working in security, landscaping, delivering furniture - "anything that can pay the bills".
Norah, now 17, passed her NCEA level 1 and is studying for level 2 at James Cook's Taonga teen parent school.
