how the country fared in 25 key global and domestic rankings
- Written by Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato
If it’s good enough for school and university students, it’s good enough for entire countries, too.
This report card provides a snapshot of how New Zealand fared across a wide range of international measures – where it did well, and where there’s room for improvement.
Of course, this isn’t definitive, and should be read with a degree of caution – measurements, metrics and numbers can only tell us so much. Nevertheless, it’s still possible to trace the nation’s ups and downs.
This has been a fractious year politically, and a challenging one financially for many New Zealanders. What follows might provide a wider perspective, spark debate, and even inspire some additional new year’s resolutions.
International pass marks
Civil liberty: global monitoring group Freedom House again gave New Zealand a near-perfect score of 99 out of 100[1] for political and civil liberties – second highest after Finland.
Corruption: Transparency International records another slip from second place last year to third place[2] in 2024 for being relatively corruption-free.
Security: in the Global Peace Index, New Zealand maintained its fourth best[3] place for safety and security, low domestic and international conflict, and degree of militarisation.
Gender equality: the Global Gender Gap[4] index recorded New Zealand remained steady as the fourth most gender-equal country (although the gender pay gap is still significant at 8.2%[5]).
Economic freedom: the Index for Economic Freedom[6], which covers everything from property rights to financial freedom, recorded New Zealand at sixth place, falling one position from last year.
Rule of law: we rose two places to be sixth in the World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index[7].
Happiness: New Zealanders are not quite as happy as they were, falling from 10th to 11th most-cheery nation in the World Happiness Report[8]. Still good, but with a caveat: people aged over 60 were sixth happiest in the world, while those aged 30 and under we were only in 27th position.
Social progress: the Human Development Index[9] saw New Zealand maintaining its 16th position for measurements including life expectancy and years spent in education.
Quality of urban life: the Economist’s Global Liveability Index[10] has only one New Zealand city, Auckland, scraping into its top ten best cities.
Room for improvement
Press freedom: it was a terrible year for media companies, with closures and layoffs all year, and this is reflected in the Press Freedom Index[11] showing another drop, down from 13th last year to 19th now.
Competitiveness and innovation: the country also continues to drop in the Global Competitiveness Report[12], now in 32nd position (an ongoing slide from 20th in 2021). But New Zealand did jump a couple of places in the Global Innovation index[13], to 25th position overall.
Environment: the Yale Environmental Performance Index[14] continues to record a slow decline, with New Zealand falling from 19th in 2020 to 33rd now (based on data from 58 performance indicators for conservation and pollution).
Climate: on the largest environmental problem of all, the Climate Change Performance Index[15] recorded a fall for New Zealand of seven places to rank 41st, remaining an overall “low performer”.
Foreign aid: the Aid Transparency Index[16] says New Zealand’s foreign aid level is “good” but still dropped our ranking by four points to 30th position. This reflects a general decline in overseas development assistance, which is still less than half the recommended UN goal as a percentage of national income.
Terrorism: the official national terror threat level has remained “low”, defined as a terror attack being a “realistic possibility[17]”. And the Global Terrorism Index[18] ranked New Zealand 50th worst in the world (up slightly from 46th worst last year) – at lower risk than the United States and United Kingdom, but higher than both Australia and Canada.
Domestic ups and downs
Employment: unemployment is creeping up, with the latest quarterly figure at 4.8%,[19] but this is still just beneath the OECD average[20].
Personal income: median weekly earnings from wages and salaries increased[21] by NZ$70 (5.5%) to $1,343 in the year to June.
Inflation: the rate of inflation has more than halved since last year, now down to an annual rate of 2.2%[22]. Relatedly, and good or bad news according to your perspective, the average house price is $902,231[23], down considerably from its peak at the turn of 2022.
Immigration and emigration: migration remains a high-speed merry-go-round[24], with a net migration gain to October 2024 of 53,800, based on 188,100 arrivals and 134,300 departures (the highest annual departure numbers on record).
Suicide: in the 2023–24 financial year, there were 617 suspected self-inflicted deaths[25], an age-adjusted rate of 11.2 per 100,000 people, minimally lower than the average rate over the past 15 years.
Prisons: incarceration rates are growing fast. As of the end of September, there were 9,924[26] people in full-time custody (up from a low of 7,500 in 2022).
Child poverty: figures from the beginning of the year show the percentage of children living in households with less than 50% of the median household income (before housing costs are taken into account) stable on 12.6%[27]. But with housing costs included, it rose to 17.5% – up from 14.4% the previous year.
Housing: the stock of public housing[28] continues to increase. As of October, there were 84,834 dwellings, an increase of 5,324 from July 2023.
Overall, while New Zealand remains a generally strong and steady performer, with a few areas of excellence, it is struggling in some key measures. The final verdict has to be the same as last year: a satisfactory to good effort, but considerable room for improvement.
References
- ^ 99 out of 100 (freedomhouse.org)
- ^ third place (www.transparency.org)
- ^ fourth best (www.visionofhumanity.org)
- ^ Global Gender Gap (www3.weforum.org)
- ^ significant at 8.2% (www.stats.govt.nz)
- ^ Index for Economic Freedom (www.heritage.org)
- ^ Rule of Law Index (worldjusticeproject.org)
- ^ World Happiness Report (worldhappiness.report)
- ^ Human Development Index (hdr.undp.org)
- ^ Economist’s Global Liveability Index (livewirecalgary.com)
- ^ Press Freedom Index (rsf.org)
- ^ Global Competitiveness Report (www.imd.org)
- ^ Global Innovation index (www.wipo.int)
- ^ Yale Environmental Performance Index (global-reports.23degrees.eu)
- ^ Climate Change Performance Index (ccpi.org)
- ^ Aid Transparency Index (www.publishwhatyoufund.org)
- ^ realistic possibility (www.nzsis.govt.nz)
- ^ Global Terrorism Index (www.visionofhumanity.org)
- ^ 4.8%, (www.stats.govt.nz)
- ^ beneath the OECD average (www.oecd.org)
- ^ wages and salaries increased (www.stats.govt.nz)
- ^ 2.2% (www.stats.govt.nz)
- ^ $902,231 (www.qv.co.nz)
- ^ high-speed merry-go-round (www.stats.govt.nz)
- ^ suspected self-inflicted deaths (www.tewhatuora.govt.nz)
- ^ 9,924 (www.corrections.govt.nz)
- ^ stable on 12.6% (www.stats.govt.nz)
- ^ public housing (www.hud.govt.nz)
Authors: Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato
