The legislation underpinning the Strategy ensures real public transparency and political accountability for reporting on child and youth wellbeing, including child poverty reduction.
Recent reports include:
Annual Report
The second statutory Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy Annual Report, for the year ended June 2022, was released on 6 April 2023. A voluntary Annual Report was published in 2021, which established baseline data for the majority of the Strategy’s 36 child and youth wellbeing indicators.
The Annual Report details progress towards achieving the outcomes, as measured against the Strategy's indicators. It includes specific information on outcomes for Māori and Pacific children and young people, and for other population groups where data is available.
It also includes progress updates on key actions in the Strategy's Programme of Action.
Monitoring Report - progress in implementing the Strategy
The fourth Monitoring Report, outlining progress in implementing the Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy was released on 05 May 2023. It details key activity carried out in 2022 (Jan - Dec) to bring the Strategy into effect. This includes progress of the particular policies and initiatives underway across government to help achieve the Strategy’s vision and outcomes. The report also includes a briefing to the Minister, which outlines changes to the reporting approach following the Review of the Strategy.
- Read the Monitoring Report for the period January - December 2022
- Read the Monitoring Report for the period January - December 2021
- Read the Monitoring Report for the period July-December 2020
- Read the Monitoring Report for the year ended June 2020
Child Poverty Report - Budget 2023
The fifth annual Child Poverty Report was released on 18 May, alongside Budget 2023. It describes what progress has been made in reducing poverty and what the government is doing through Budget 2022 to reduce child poverty.
- Find out more
- Read the Child Poverty Report Budget 2023
- Read the Child Poverty Report Budget 2022
- Read the Child Poverty Report - Budget 2021
- Child Poverty Report - Budget 2020
- Child Poverty Report - Budget 2019
Child Poverty Statistics
Stats NZ released the official child poverty rates for the year ended June 2022 on 23 March 2023. These statistics track progress towards the Government's child poverty targets against the 2017/18 baseline data. The data shows that eight out of nine of the child poverty measures are statistically significantly lower than the 2017/18 baseline year. Last year, there were only five measures that had moved a statistically significant amount.
The data period spans a time when New Zealand experienced significant economic volatility associated with the main phase of the COVID19 pandemic, as well as global cost-of-living pressures. The absence of a significant spike in poverty rates in 2021/22 suggests that the substantial investments over this period have protected households from the negative economic impacts on child poverty rates so far.
- Read the latest Stats NZ child poverty report (for the year ended June 2022)
- Read the media release
- See the Stats NZ child poverty baseline rates (for the year ended June 2018)
Data time-lags
A challenge with measurement and reporting is that there are time-lags between data collection and reporting timeframes, meaning the impacts of policies are often not visible in the reporting for some time.
The child poverty data used in the child poverty report produced by Stats NZ is drawn from the Household Economic Survey (HES), which surveys adults (aged 15+) in more than 20,000 households. The survey is conducted over a 12-month period, from July to June, and collects annual income information for the 12 months prior to the interview. These collection timelines mean a significant lag in data reporting, of up to two and a half years at the time of the report’s release.
For example, the numbers reflected in the child poverty report for the 2019/20 year, released in February 2022, cover annual incomes from mid-2018 to mid-2020.
Child Poverty Related Indicators Report
The third report on the Child Poverty Related Indicators - focusing on trends up to and including the 2020/21 year - was released on 12 April 2022.
Child Poverty Related Indicators are measures related to the broader causes and consequences of child poverty. Taken together, these indicators help tell a broader story about the lived experience of children living in poverty in New Zealand.
Overtime, they can also tell us more about the impact of policies established to reduce child poverty and mitigate its consequences.
