Download the Quality of Life Reports

1. People
The first section, People, provides information about the size and composition of the cities’ populations. It provides the context for the rest of the report.

2. The second section comprises the core of the report and is organised into the ten remaining domains and structured around the social/cultural, economic and environmental wellbeing areas identified in the Local Government Act (2002).

• Social/Cultural Wellbeing

The chapter on Knowledge and Skills focuses on participation and attainment in education, access to training and educational disparities. The far-reaching impact of urban issues on residents’ physical and mental health and sense of wellbeing is then addressed in the Health chapter.

• Economic Wellbeing

Population growth and economic development put pressure on the sustainability of the environment. While the built environment is an important contributor to the way people feel about where they live, it also has a major impact on the sustainability of the natural environment.

• Environmental Wellbeing

The Natural and Built Environments are reported in the last two chapters.

3. The final section, Conclusions, summarises the findings.

Quality of Life Report

The Quality of Life report provides a comprehensive assessment of quality of life in 12 New Zealand cities.

The purpose of the report is to provide information that contributes to the understanding of social, economic and environmental conditions which can be used to describe and quantify the quality of life of those living in New Zealand’s major urban areas.

Background

This is the third report on the quality of life in our cities. These reports are part of the Quality of Life Project, a multi-council initiative that emerged in response to the growing pressure on urban communities, concern about the impact of urbanisation and the effects on the wellbeing of urban residents. The cities which participate in the Project have changed over time. The core members of the Project are Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin but the 2007 Quality of Life Report covers twelve council’s five of which were amalgamated to form a single Auckland Council in 2010.

The key purpose of the Project is to:

• Provide information to decision-makers to improve the quality of life in major New Zealand urban areas.

Objectives of the Project include:

• Consistency of indicator use and monitoring methods among participating cities
• Provision of data to support advocacy on urban issues
• Raising the profile of urban issues within central government
• Collaborative working of bigger cities to monitor and address quality of life issues.
• Monitoring across the cities enables participating councils to develop a consistent set of indicators, identify urban issues and trends, and provide a platform to develop comprehensive responses to these.

The indicators and measures selected for monitoring are related to outcomes that are identified as being essential to maintaining and improving quality of life in our cities. These indicators and measures have been structured around the social/cultural, economic, environmental wellbeing areas identified in the Local Government Act and organised under 11 ‘domains’ or areas of people’s lives. These are:

• people
• knowledge and skills
• health
• safety
• housing
• social connectedness
• civil and political rights
• economic standard of living
• economic development
• the natural environment
• built environment

Under the Local Government Act (2002), local authorities are required to work with their communities to identify their desired outcomes. Councils then develop plans or initiatives to achieve the outcomes and monitor progress towards meeting them. Many of the councils’ community outcomes match the domains used in this report.