Most Bay of Plenty residents are fully or partially prepared for a civil defence emergency, but more could be done, recent research results show.
New national research by the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management show 17 percent of Bay of Plenty residents are fully prepared for an emergency.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council's Civil Defence Emergency Management manager, Clinton Naude, said the region's 'get ready get thru' results were positive compared to when the survey was first run seven years ago.
"That's the same as the national average - but we want more people to be fully prepared.
"Nearly a third (32 percent) of Bay of Plenty residents are prepared at home - the same as the national average - but that's a drop of five percent from Bay of Plenty's previous year level (37 percent) which was above the national average," Mr Naude said.
Just over half, 52 percent, of those living in Bay of Plenty, and the New Zealand average, had taken steps to prepare from 12 months from April/May 2012. Although this result remains higher than pre-2011 before the Christchurch earthquakes struck, it is significantly lower than last year and follows a downward trend.