Child poverty statistics provide estimates of low income and material hardship rates for measures listed in the Child Poverty Reduction Act 2018.
There are three primary measures of child poverty, and six supplementary measures. Targets for the primary measures are required to be set by the responsible minister.
Statistics for all nine child poverty measures, including annual changes, are available in the files under Download Data below. Figures are available by ethnicity and disability status, as well as regional council area.
The Household Economic Survey (HES), from which these latest measures were estimated, was conducted between July 2023 and June 2024. Households were asked to report income and expenditure for the 12 months prior to interview. This means that for some households, income will refer to income received in the 2022/2023 year.
The published estimates are subject to some uncertainty because not everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand was surveyed. This range of uncertainty should be considered when looking at year-on-year changes. Stats NZ encourages users to look at trends over several years where possible. Small changes year-on-year are unlikely to be statistically significant because they fall within the range of expected uncertainty.
Child poverty statistics: Year ended June 2024 - technical appendix has more information about the survey and methodology used for estimating child poverty rates.
| Year ended June | Percent |
| 2014 | 14.5 |
| 2015 | 16.3 |
| 2016 | 15.4 |
| 2017 | 14.2 |
| 2018 | 16.5 |
| 2019 | 13.5 |
| 2020 | 13.2 |
| 2021 | 13 |
| 2022 | 11.7 |
| 2023 R | 12.2 |
| 2024 | 12.7 |
| 13.4 | 15.6 |
|---|---|
| 15.2 | 17.4 |
| 14.3 | 16.5 |
| 13.1 | 15.3 |
| 15.4 | 17.6 |
| 12.6 | 14.4 |
| 12 | 14.4 |
| 11.8 | 14.2 |
| 10 | 13.4 |
| 10.9 | 13.5 |
| 11.7 | 13.7 |
| Year ended June | Percent |
| 2014 | 27.3 |
| 2015 | 27.2 |
| 2016 | 24.3 |
| 2017 | 22.4 |
| 2018 | 22.8 |
| 2019 | 18.3 |
| 2020 | 17.8 |
| 2021 | 15 |
| 2022 | 14.4 |
| 2023 R | 17.7 |
| 2024 | 17.7 |
| 24.4 | 30.2 |
|---|---|
| 24.3 | 30.1 |
| 22 | 26.6 |
| 20 | 24.8 |
| 20.9 | 24.7 |
| 17.2 | 19.4 |
| 16.5 | 19.1 |
| 13.8 | 16.2 |
| 12.7 | 16.1 |
| 16.2 | 19.2 |
| 16.5 | 18.9 |
Material hardship - measure (c)
In the year ended June 2024, 13.4 percent of children lived in a household experiencing material hardship.
There was no statistically significant change to the rate from the year ended June 2023. The rate increased by 2.4 percentage points from the year ended June 2021. There was no statistically significant change to the rate from the baseline year ended June 2018.
A household that lacks six or more of 17 items on the DEP-17 index is defined as being in material hardship.
Examples of items on the DEP-17 index include:
- going without fresh fruit or vegetables, because of the cost
- having to put up with feeling cold, to keep costs down
- unable to afford an unexpected $500 expense, without borrowing
- having to buy cheaper or less meat, because of the cost
- putting off doctor's visits, to keep costs down.
Measuring child poverty: Material hardship has a full list of the DEP-17 items.
| Year ended June | Percent |
| 2014 | 16 |
| 2015 | 17.5 |
| 2016 | 12.1 |
| 2017 | 12.7 |
| 2018 | 13.3 |
| 2019 | 13.2 |
| 2020 | 11.5 |
| 2021 | 11 |
| 2022 | 10.5 |
| 2023 R | 12.5 |
| 2024 | 13.4 |
| 12.2 | 19.8 |
|---|---|
| 13.2 | 21.8 |
| 8.5 | 15.7 |
| 10.3 | 15.1 |
| 11 | 15.6 |
| 12.1 | 14.3 |
| 10.4 | 12.6 |
| 10 | 12 |
| 9 | 12 |
| 11.3 | 13.7 |
| 12.3 | 14.5 |
Technical enquiries
Marney Edwards
04 931 4600
[email protected]
ISSN 2624-2915
Next release
Child poverty statistics: Year ended June 2025 will be released in 2026.
