Social » Healthy Community

People's physical and mental health is protected. Living and working environments are safe, and everyone has access to health care. Every opportunity is taken to recognise and encourage good health.

What is Healthy Community?

Good health is vital to well-being. Without good health, people are less able to enjoy their lives to the extent they might desire, their options may be limited and their general levels of quality of life and happiness may be reduced. Without good health and the ability to access healthcare, people are less able to actively participate in and contribute to the economic, social and cultural life of the region.

Healthy community is made up of 11 indicators that were selected to measure progress towards the healthy outcome definition (defined above). Data relating to each individual indicator (for the 2001 to 2017 period) is provided via the menu below. The index that measures change in the healthy community index (pictured below) shows the composite average of the individual indicators.

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Healthy community, 2001-2017

What this means

Despite declining during the first eight years of the time series, the level the healthy community index reached in 2017, is a change of 3% compared to the 2001 result.

Did you know?

Using GDP, smoking has traditionally been counted as a benefit to the economy. With a GPI, smoking is regarded as a cost

11 Indicators are being used to track Healthy Community in the Wellington region

Click on each indicator below to access further information


Download Territorial Authority data for these Indicators


Perception of health

Why is this indicator important?

Self-reported health has been found to be a powerful predictor of future health problems, health care use and mortality, independent of other medical, behavioural or psychosocial factors.

Percentage of people who rate their health as excellent or very good, 2008 to 2016

Findings

  • In 2016, 58.3% of respondents from the Wellington region rated their health as very good or excellent. This is a 6% decrease to the 62.1% recorded in 2008.
  • Respondents in the Wellington region rating their health as very good or excellent was similar to that of the respondents from all of New Zealand, particularly in 2012 but is now below the NZ rating.
  • The percentage of respondents from New Zealand overall rating their health as very good or excellent was 60.4% in 2008 and 2012, and decreased to 58% in 2016.

Perception of health

Definition and data details

Indicator Definition

The percentage of respondents in the Wellington region that rated their health as good, very good or excellent.

Data Source

General Social Survey

Last updated March 2018

Data available bi-annually from 2008.  Indicators are updated in May and November each year; for those indicators where new data or survey results have become available.

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.