The State of the Nation Report 2020 looks back on one decade and forward to a brand new one. This report looks at five specific areas of social wellbeing and measures outcomes that impact on the wellbeing of the communities, whānau and individuals.

Key findings

This report points to significant progress: an increase in average incomes; extra spend on welfare and hardship support for beneficiaries; decline in offending and imprisonment rates; increase in the number of social houses, and new house builds at a 45-year high. However, we do not see the change required to deal with normalised, entrenched inequality and poverty in New Zealand. Many key indicators of social concern are not improving: the increase of people on the social housing register; the affordability of housing in Auckland and now the regions; and no decrease in 10 years for children in deepest poverty.