New Zealand: Facts & Stats

Demographics

Population:

4 million inhabitants (2009) Density: 16 inhabitants per sq. km New Zealand has 6 urban areas with over 100,000 inhabitants.

The five largest are:

1. Auckland 1,313,200
2. Christchurch 382,200
3. Wellington 381,900
4. Hamilton 166,100
5. Tauranga 116,000

Welfare:

New Zealand was the first country in the English speaking world to provide a state-funded old age pension. The old age pension replaced the haphazard, humiliating experience of applying for charitable aid. Premier Richard Seddon saw this legislation as the beginning of a scheme with the potential to extend ‘from the cradle to the grave’.

Not that the new pension was generous or even available to all those in need. Its rate was only 18 pounds a year and it was subject to a stiff means test and 20 years residence in New Zealand. As a young immigrant country this was certainly a hard criterion.

The criteria for receiving an unemployment benefit remain similar to the original 1938 legislation, the main differences being that the applicant must now be over 18 years of age and have lived in New Zealand for two years. The requirement for the applicant to take reasonable steps to find employment is more enforced though a "Job Seeker Agreement", a contract between the applicant and Work and Income New Zealand. Current benefit levels are between $115.94 and $249.10 a week depending on the applicant's age and living situation.

On October 26, 2006 the government announced a number of changes to the welfare system. Then Minister for Social Development and Employment David Benson-Pope later stated that, when implemented, the reforms will move between 3,000 and 6,000 people off the Sickness Benefit.

Education:

Education in New Zealand follows the three-tier model which includes primary schools, followed by secondary schools (high schools) and tertiary education at universities and/or polytechs. The Programme for International Student Assessment ranks New Zealand's education as the 7th best in the world.

Education is free and compulsory between the ages of 6 and 16; though typically, children start school on their 5th birthday, or the first School Day after it. Post-compulsory education is regulated within the New Zealand National Qualifications Framework, a unified system of national qualifications in schools, vocational education and training.

The academic year in New Zealand varies between institutions, but generally runs from late January until mid-December for primary and secondary schools and polytechnics, and from late February until mid-November for universities.

Religion:

Religion in New Zealand was originally dominated by M?ori religion in the days before the European colonization. Missionaries including Samuel Marsden then converted most M?ori to Christianity, which remains the dominant religion in New Zealand to this day.

However, many other religions have become established as well due to immigration and dispersal of culture. Notably, the country has become much more secular in recent times, with roughly 40% of New Zealanders—whether atheist, agnostic or simply apatheist— claiming no religion at all. Currently just over half of New Zealanders identify with a religion, based on the results of the 2006 New Zealand Census of Population and Dwellings.

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