We're living longer but lifestyles still not healthy

Of the five healthy habits, people were generally worst at exercising and eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Photo / Greg Bowker

New Zealanders have better living standards, will be healthier for longer and are less likely to die violently than they were 20 years ago - but only one in seven lives a healthy lifestyle.

Statistics New Zealand has revealed the results of its first major review of New Zealand's "sustainability" - defined as how well the country is meeting its needs without compromising living standards in the future.

Described as "an overview of New Zealand's economic, social and environmental progress in the past 20 years", the reports looked at how well we live, whether wealth is distributed fairly, and progress in energy efficiency and conservation.

It found average disposable income increased by a third since 1988, while the rate of death from assault fell by just under a third, from 2.1 in a 100,000 to 1.5.

The length of time a newborn could expect to live without needing daily help rose from 67.5 to 69.2 years for women, and from 64.7 to 67.4 years for men in the past decade. But our longer lives did not seem to be the product of healthy habits.

Only one in seven New Zealanders lived what researchers called a healthy lifestyle: defined as no smoking, safe drinking, enough physical activity, eating enough fruit and vegetables and keeping a healthy weight.

Of the five healthy habits, people were generally worst at exercising and eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day. Women were particularly poor excercisers, while men had trouble keeping drinking within safe limits.

Healthy habits were not the only area in which the country scored badly. Government statistician Geoff Bascand said higher living standards and rising incomes were not being shared equally by everyone.

"Progress in rising incomes has not been shared evenly over the period with differences between those on high incomes and those on low incomes widening," he said.

A graph of the income gap between rich and poor showed it widened in the late 1980s and again in the early 2000s before narrowing again slightly between 2004 and 2007.

Auckland economics lecturer Susan St John said growing income inequality meant a great number of children would be living in poverty.

"We are not doing very well on child poverty and that's of great concern. It does not bode well for future growth or future health," she said.

While we may not be as healthy or financially equal as demographers would like, the study showed we may be getting smarter.

The proportion of adults with at least a secondary school qualification increased by 10 per cent to 75 per cent since 1990, while those with a bachelors degree or higher more than doubled from 8 per cent to 21 per cent.

The early 1990s emerged as a black spot in the overall trend of rising living standards. Average incomes fell in 1991 and 1992 - the only time they did in the past two decades. The early nineties were also when the death rate from assaults peaked, income inequality peaked and unemployment hit a 20 year high.