KEY POINTS:
New Zealand continues to do well in traditional social areas such as unemployment and badly when it comes to income inequality and obesity, compared with the rest of the developed world.
A report released today by the Ministry of Social Development showed New Zealand was equal to, or above the OECD median for 12 of the 20 indicators looked at.
For representation of women in Parliament, voter turnout, corruption and unemployment NZ did well - often among the top OECD countries.
New Zealand ranks ninth out of the 30 OECD countries for representation of women in Parliament and eighth for voter turnout with 77 per cent of eligible voters turning up for the 2005 election.
NZ was well above most OECD countries for perceived corruption. In 2006, NZ ranked first equal with Finland and Iceland as the least corrupt nations in the OECD.
In 2006 3.8 per cent of people in NZ were unemployed and actively seeking work, giving NZ the third lowest unemployment rate out of the OECD countries.
However, when it comes to obesity, and market income per person NZ rates low on OECD rankings. On obesity it ranks 21 out of 30, on market income per person 22 out of 30.
Ministry policy manager social outcomes Conal Smith said unemployment has not improved much this year because it is already so low and "didn't have anywhere to go".
The biggest issues for NZ - obesity, smoking, tertiary education participation of Maori and household crowding - were "not new", he said.
The number of obese adults aged 15-years and over increased from 17 per cent in 1997 to 21 per cent in 2003. The number of adults who smoke cigarettes in 2006 remained the same as 2005, this figure is affected by a change in the age of those surveyed from over 15-years in 2005 to 15-64-years in the 2006 survey.
In 2004, despite a downward trend, NZ had the fourth highest suicide rate for male and females out of 14 OECD countries - 486 people were reported as having committed suicide in that year.
Ministry head of social development policy and knowledge Don Gray said the report shows NZ was "improving strongly".
"The report showed that, although women are generally healthier and increasingly better educated than men, they lag behind in employment - both in terms of labour participation and income. However, improvements for men in health and improvements for women in paid work mean these gaps are narrowing."
The report is compiled to give information on how NZ is doing socially in addition to economic and environment indicators, Mr Gray said.
- NZPA
