Richer and poorer
Despite Northland’s steady development over recent years, statistics show that it is one of the country’s poorest regions.
Employment and income
In 2006 Northland had an unemployment rate of 6.5%, the second highest in the country. Personal and household median incomes are some of the lowest in New Zealand. There is also wide variation in personal incomes and standard of living. Inland townships such as Kawakawa, Kaikohe and Moerewa, with high unemployment, compare unfavourably with towns nearer the coast like Kerikeri and Paihia.
Contributing factors include:
- a higher proportion of low-paid workers
- a low level of school-leaver qualifications
- young people departing the region for better training and job opportunities elsewhere.
Health needs
By the end of the 20th century the north continued to have special health needs, some of them a reflection of the high Māori population and its lower life expectancy. Unfavourable regional statistics included:
- an infant mortality rate higher than the national average
- a Māori infant mortality rate nearly three times that of non-Māori in Northland
- lower life expectancy at birth than the national average.
Housing
Housing in the north has long been a source of concern. The first surveys of Māori housing in the 1930s showed appalling conditions. A series of fatal fires in the early 2000s drew attention to the continuing issue of unsafe housing: no electric power, poor sanitation and other problems.
In 2001 Housing New Zealand, with other agencies and tribal organisations, began a five-year programme to eliminate substandard housing. By June 2003, 1,000 households had been assessed and some 200 properties repaired, with improved wiring, installation of septic tanks, and access to safe drinking water. Moves were also made to provide some rental housing and low-deposit loans for purchasing homes.
Setbacks
Northland and its people are still recovering from the 1980s and 1990s, when many urban unemployed were drawn back into the north’s rural areas. The local economy was also severely affected in the last two decades of the 20th century by government restructuring. When the forestry sector became a state-owned enterprise, for example, many people lost jobs, especially Māori who were a high proportion of the forest work force. Employment opportunities remain limited.
