Social Capital

The figure shows that in 2018, a lower proportion (33.6%) of Christchurch City respondents agreed or strongly agreed that decisions made by central and local government agencies were in the best interests of their city or district, compared to Waimakariri District respondents (38.9%) and Selwyn District respondents (38.3%); although the differences were not statistically significant. However, in 2019, a higher proportion of respondents from Selwyn District indicated having confidence in central and local government agencies’ decision-making processes. The increase of 8.6 percentage points is statistically significant for Selwyn District (2018 compared with 2019) and the proportion for Selwyn District is statistically significantly higher than for Christchurch City, but not Waimakariri District, in 2019.

The figure shows that the proportion of respondents in the Pacific/Asian/Indian ethnic group agreeing or strongly agreeing that central and local government agencies make decisions in the best interests of their city or district was statistically significantly higher than for Māori respondents and European respondents in 2018 (43.7%; 27.3%; and 34.1% respectively) and statistically significantly higher than for European respondents in 2019 (47.8% and 37.8%, respectively). Māori respondents were the least likely to have confidence in central and local government agencies’ decision making at both time-points.

The figure shows no obvious pattern or statistically significant differences across the age groups, in the proportion of respondents who agree or strongly agree that central and local government agencies make decisions in the best interests of their city or district.

The figure shows no statistically significant difference between the proportions of male respondents and female respondents who agree or strongly agree that central and local government agencies make decisions in the best interests of their city or district. The proportions agreeing with this statement are higher in 2019 than in 2018 (females 35.0% and 39.4% respectively; males 34.3% and 37.8%) but these increases are not statistically significant.

The figure shows no obvious pattern or statistically significant differences across the household income groups in the proportion of respondents who agree or strongly agree that central and local government agencies make decisions in the best interests of their city or district.

The figure shows that a statistically significantly smaller proportion of respondents with a long-term health condition or disability agree or strongly agree that central and local government agencies make decisions in the best interests of their city or district, compared with respondents without a long-term health condition or disability (27.4%, and 36.6%, 2018; 31.7% and 40.6%, 2019).