The number of New Zealanders who say they have a good quality of life has declined, possibly reflecting how the recession has hit households, the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development said.Eighty-three percent of people in a national su
The number of New Zealanders who say they have a good quality of life has declined, possibly reflecting how the recession has hit households, the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development said.
Eighty-three percent of people in a national survey said their quality of life was good or better, down 6 percent on 2008 and 9 percent on 2007, the council said in a national survey.
Seventeen percent of those responding to the council's national online survey panel, ShapeNZ, rated their quality of life as poor to fair, up from 8 percent in 2007.
The results appeared to relate to incomes or household size, and could reflect the impact of the recession.
"This should once again reinforce the view from our earlier research that New Zealanders want both higher incomes and a better quality of life. They don't see them as alternatives," council chief executive Peter Neilson said.
For those earning $200,000 a year or more, all people surveyed said their quality of life was excellent or very good. The highest quality of life was among those with personal incomes of $100,000 a year or more.
In contrast, 10 percent of those earning between $20,001 and $30,000 a year said their quality of life was excellent.
People reporting the highest quality of life were 75 years or older, worked in transport or storage, and lived in a one-couple household with no children at home.
People in cities also rated their quality of life highly.
Those at the other end of the scale had incomes of less than $20,000 a year, worked in personal and other services, were Asian, and were single parent families with three or more children at home.
The survey of 1066 respondents in February and March was weighted to represent the national population, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent.
