Key Trends in Consumer Policy

Background Paper to Creating Confident Consumers

May 2003

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Who Are New Zealand's Consumers?

It is helpful to begin this paper with a brief overview of some relevant statistics on New Zealand consumers: [1]

• 86% of New Zealanders live in urban areas.
• People over the age of 65 make up 12% of our population, currently just under 500,000. This figure is expected to more than double by 2051.
• The number of people of Asian ethnicity has doubled since 1991, and they now outnumber people of Pacific ethnicity.
• The number of New Zealanders of European ethnicity declined to 80% in 2001.
• Ten of New Zealand's sixteen regions are expected to grow in population size.
• Only four regions are expected to grow at a rate faster than the national average: Auckland, Bay of Plenty, Tasman and Northland. The Auckland region dominates growth. Currently one in three New Zealanders lives in Auckland.
• In 2001 47% of all households owned a computer and four in ten had Internet access.
• 83% of primary and 94% of secondary schools had Internet access by 1998.
• Households likely to have a lower rate of Internet access are Māori, Pacific, those over the age of 65 and low-income earners.
• At least one in nine Māori and Pacific households do not have telephone, fax or Internet access.

[1] Statistics New Zealand information available at www.stats.govt.nz.

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