Economic » Prosperous Community

All members of our community prosper from a strong and growing economy. A thriving business sector attracts and retains a skilled and productive workforce.

What is Prosperous Community?

A prosperous community is one in which there is a job market in which employment is growing, unemployment is low, incomes are relatively high and evenly distributed and people are well-educated. Having a decent income is a crucial element contributing to quality of life because most basic needs such as food, water, shelter, health care and many forms of recreation have to be purchased. The valuable services resulting from unpaid household and community work also contribute directly to our well-being and prosperity.

Prosperous community is made up of 8 indicators that were selected to measure progress towards the prosperous community outcome definition (shown above). Please see below for the raw data available over the 2001 to 2010 study period for each of the prosperous community indicators.

As with the economic well-being GPI, the available indicator data that forms part of the prosperous community outcome area was used to calculate individual index values for each indicator for each year over the 2001 to 2010 study period. The graph below shows the average of these individual index values, and represents the prosperous community GPI for the Wellington region from 2001-2010.

 

City Circular

Prosperous community GPI, 2001-2010

What this means

Over the 2001 to 2010 time period, the prosperous community GPI was found to be highest in 2008 and lowest in 2002. The prosperous community GPI decreased slightly from 2001 to 2002, gradually increased between 2002 and 2008, and then decreased from 2008 to 2010. The changes have resulted in a 2.2% increase in the prosperous community GPI from 2001 to 2010. The value of household and community work made the biggest contribution to the increase in the prosperous community GPI.

Did you know?

The GPI counts crime, pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, natural resource depletion and soil loss, as costs, not gains, to the economy.

8 Indicators are being used to track Prosperous Community in the Wellington region

Click on each indicator below to access further information

Labour force participation

Why is this indicator important?

The size of the labour force is critical to New Zealand’s capacity to produce goods and services.  Short-term changes in the participation rate can often be traced to job market conditions. A job market in which employment is growing often encourages more people to participate.

Labour force participation, 2001-2011

Findings

  • The Wellington region labour force participation rate was 71.3% in 2011.
  • The labour force participation rate has remained relatively constant over the study period, with only a 2.7 % increase from 2001 to 2011.
  • The Wellington region labour force participation rate has consistently been above the national average rate from 2001 to 2011. 
  • In 2011, the Wellington region labour force participation rate was 3 percentage points higher than the New Zealand rate.

Labour force participation

Definition and data details

Indicator definition

The total labour force (people who are either employed-working at least one hour per week; or unemployed-not in work but available for work and actively seeking work) expressed as a percentage of the working age population (15 years and over)

Data Source

Statistics New Zealand: Household Labour Force Survey

Last updated 24 July 2012

While care has been taken in processing, analysing and extracting information, we cannot guarantee that the information is free from error and we shall not be liable for any loss suffered through the use, directly or indirectly, of any information, product or service.