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Tuesday, January 2, 2001

Facts And Figures That You Won't See On Campaign Posters


We’ve all seen the ‘Campaign Posters’ and very effective they are too but here are some of the less well known about facts and figures for New Zealand. Unfortunately some of them make for very grim reading.

Despite propaganda to the contrary CRIME RATES are actually very high.

Says who? well the OECD for one. They say “New Zealand is second only to Ireland in 26 OECD countries in internationally comparable data on vehicle, theft and contact crimes. 22% of New Zealanders experienced such a crime in a 12-month period, compared to an OECD average of 16%.” You’re more likely to experience this type of crime in New Zealand than in almost any other country in the OECD.

In 2009 there was a sharp rise in HOME INVASIONS. There were 112 compared to 85 in 2008. The attacks are happening in both rural and city areas, see link and link.

An independent think tank, The New Zealand Institute released a study which showed that New Zealand has the fifth highest MURDER RATE (assault mortality) in the OECD.

A UNICEF Report Ranks NZ as among the worst in OECD for CHILD ABUSE. A 2003 UNICEF report showed that New Zealand has one of the highest rates of child death from maltreatment (physical abuse and neglect) among rich OECD countries.

NZ ranked 25th on a league table of 27 countries with 1.2 deaths per 100,000 children. For two examples of what goes on read “Man jailed for shooting daughter and “Nia Glassie

New Zealand, along with Norway, is unusual in that SUICIDE RATES for young adults are greater than for older people. Most OECD countries have higher suicide rates for older people.

The NZ economy is among the most indebted in the OECD and its LIVING STANDARDS lag behind many other OECD member. Relatively low labour productivity growth since the 1970s “has opened up a large income gap relative to the OECD average and an even greater one with leading countries such as the United States. The poor productivity performance is explained to some extent by New Zealand’s special geographic situation, which hinders the transfer of human, physical and technological capital from abroad, but also to sub-optimal policies in a number of areas” for more see link

More Facts and Stats

Crime
Living Accommodation
  • Tauranga has been ranked one of the most expensive cities in the world to live in with housing described as ‘Severely Unaffordable. It was the 20th city on the list, more expensive than Auckland (22) and and Christchurch (31)
Economy
  • Migrants are important to the NZ economy. The migrant population of 927,000 people had a positive net fiscal impact of $3,288 million in the year to 30 June 2006. The net fiscal impact per head was $2,680 for recent migrants, $3,470 for intermediate migrants and $4,280 for earlier migrants. The net fiscal impact for the New Zealand-born population was $915 per head.
Children and Youth
  • The NZ Human Rights Commission released a report in which it identified significant human rights issues in relation to violence in New Zealand Schools.
  • One child is abused to death every 23 days. “Thousands of children in New Zealand are suffering horrendous abuse at the hands of the people charged with nurturing them every day. And even more are suffering lower levels of abuse and neglect.”
  • Arson in schools amounts to $3.2 million a year.
  • School vandalism costs $10 million a year, money that would otherwise be spent on educating children. The damage consists mostly of smashed windows, graffiti and break-ins. The worst hit school is Auckland’s Papakura High School where $262,000 was spent on cleaning up and or repairing vandalism.
  • The average university student’s debt is $16,000 and loans must start to be repaid as soon the borrower reaches a salary of least $19,084. Those who leave the country to avoid making repayments are charged charged interest at  6.8 % PA after six months away. It’s one reason why many graduates don’t return home.
Health and Death
  • There is a workforce crisis in New Zealand’s hospitals. Specialist senior doctors are being lost and there is a shortage of cancer specialists. Staff are lost to Australia (where the salaries are 35% higher) and to private practice. The causes are low pay by international standards, overwork and lack of resources to do the job.
  • Prostitution is legal in New Zealand. A 19 year-old woman recently sold her virginity to the highest bidder on an on-line NZ auction site.
Green Credentials
These are NZ’s OECD and World rankings (click on links for data sources)
1st highest country for
*Property crime victims
*Car ownership – 720 per 1000 people, even more than the USA’s 675 per 1000 (2005)
*Rape victims In NZ only 9% of sexual offences get reported to police, and of those only 13% of rapes resulted in convictions. The median age of victims is 23 and Europeans account for 61% of the victims – See ‘Conviction rate in sex cases
2nd highest country for
3rd highest country for
*Loss of electrical power between source and destination
7th fattest country in the world
62.7% of New Zealanders are obese according to the WHO, Kids watching too much TV and ‘modern development’ mostly to blame
8th highest country for Economic Crime (Fraud)
* See PWC Economic Crime Survey
For Road Death and Injury Statistics,  see: Road Death Toll.
For today’s posts see: latest posts

Monday, January 1, 2001

Road Crash Data

Publicly available data on road death and injuries in New Zealand is as follows
  • 366 deaths and 15,266 injuries (2560 serious and 12,706 minor injuries) in 2008. Official NZTA figures.* please see below
  • Crash rate of 26 and a casualty rate of 36 people per 10,000 population. 5 year averaged data.
  • Total deaths in 2009 - 384.
  • Deaths so far in 2010 - 29, same period last year - 20.
  • Social costs of crashes 2008 -  $4,293,000,000. link
  • Total population of NZ - 4,311,000.

For further information please see NZ Transport Agency statistics

NZ is the Second Worst Place in World for Road Deaths from car occupant collisions
Statistics gathered by the site NationMaster.com place New Zealand as the second highest country in the world for deaths resulting from car occupant collision with car, pick-up truck or van (per capita) with 35.6877 deaths per million people. Way ahead of the USA which is ranked 15, Australia 17 and UK 37.

The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office have issued the following NZ Travel Advice: link
Local Travel

"There have been a number of tragic accidents involving British visitors; these also include extreme sporting accidents. If you intend to participate in extreme sports you should check that the company is well established in the industry and your insurance covers you. If you intend visiting remote areas, you should check with local tourist authorities for advice before setting out. You should ensure that you register your details with a Visitor Information Centre or family or friends. Weather conditions can quickly become treacherous in some areas and you should keep yourself informed of regional weather forecasts.

Road Travel

 
Whilst road conditions are generally good in New Zealand, it takes a little while to get used to local driving conditions.

In 20078there were 366 road deaths in New Zealand (source: DfT).  This equates to 8.6 road deaths per 100,000 of population and compares to the UK average of 4.3 road deaths per 100,000 of population in 2008.

You are advised to read a copy of the Road Code (the official guide to traffic rules and traffic safety) before driving.  Particular attention should be given to the section covering the right of way rules, which are different from other countries.  UK driving licences are valid for use for a maximum of 12 months.

Motor insurance is not a legal requirement in New Zealand.  Therefore, even though the UK has a reciprocal Healthcare Agreement with New Zealand, private accident insurance is recommended.  This is because New Zealand law has removed the right of accident victims to sue a third party in the event of an accident.  Instead the Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) helps pay for your care if you are injured as the result of an accident.  However, the ACC only covers the cost of treatment in New Zealand and delayed travel or loss of income in a third country is not covered.

For further information see our Driving Abroad page."
 * Official Statistics for serious road injuries may be unreliable. A report by the University of Otago compared police crash reports to hospital discharge data and concluded that injuries were often wrongly classified by police. They estimated that approximately 15% of injuries incorrectly classified as minor were actually life threatening.

In one NZTA report the number of serious injuries reported by police was compared to the number of people admitted to hospital with serious injuries. For the whole of the country only 34% of serious accidents were reported by police in 2008, the lowest areas for reporting were Northland 31%, Auckland 16%, Bay of Plenty 27%, Gisborne 26% and Manawatu-Wanganui 34%. The highest reporting was in Wellington at 64%. Therefore we suggest that any official data for serious injuries be treated with caution.

See also
Cycling dangers in New Zealand - see posts tagged Cycling
New Zealand Herald's Road Accidents Archive
New Zealand's dangerous roads
NZ's roads described as 'killing fields' after 14 fatalities over ANZAC weekend


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