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Income

Child poverty

Children growing up in poverty are more likely to experience poor health, cognitive, educational, social-emotional and behavioural outcomes [14,15]. These can also extend into adulthood [16,17], impacting their future potential. Poverty experienced over long periods is particularly harmful [14]. Poverty and low income contribute to parental stress, and material hardship - the inability to access resources for day-to-day living including nutritious food, quality housing, and prompt medical care [14].

This indicator has two parts: the proportion of children living in low-income households and the proportion of children living in material hardship. Both sub-indicators are based on the Government’s four primary measures of poverty and hardship, for which national targets have been set [18].

Low income households

This sub-indicator presents the proportion of children living in low-income households for the Canterbury region and New Zealand for 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. Low income means the household has an equivalised disposable income, after housing costs are deducted, below half of the New Zealand median income. ‘Equivalised’ household income means that the dollar amounts have been adjusted based on the number of adults and age and number of children in the household. The national three-year ‘intermediate’ target is to reduce the proportion of children living in low-income households after housing costs are deducted to 19 percent by 2020/21 [18].

The figure shows that the proportion of children living in low-income households was statistically similar in the Canterbury region and New Zealand overall in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 (17.8% in the Canterbury region and 18.4% in New Zealand overall in 2019/2020). No statistically significant change in the proportion of children living in low-income households was observed between 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 for either Canterbury or New Zealand.

Material hardship

This sub-indicator presents the proportion of children living in households experiencing material hardship, for the Canterbury region and New Zealand for 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. The term material hardship is defined as a household lacking six or more items in the DEP-17 index (a New Zealand-specific deprivation index). Meeting this definition means that the household is missing out on some of the things that could be expected in a typical household - for example eating fresh fruit or vegetables regularly, having suitable clothing and shoes, and being able to give gifts to family and friends on special occasions. The national three-year ‘intermediate’ target is to reduce the proportion of children living in material hardship to 10 percent by 2020/21 [18].

The figure shows that a lower proportion of children in the Canterbury region were living in households experiencing material hardship than in New Zealand overall in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 (8.5% in the Canterbury region compared to 11.3% in New Zealand in 2019/2020). However, the difference is not statistically significant at either timepoint. The proportion of children living in households experiencing material hardship has decreased between 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 in both the Canterbury region and New Zealand overall. Neither decrease is statistically significant.