News

Kiwis mainly happy with their lives, study finds

Most New Zealanders are happy with their incomes, health and social lives. That's the picture painted by the country's first "general social survey", a $3 million Statistics NZ exercise in which 8700 people answered almost 200 questions in interviews in their homes over the year to March. The first results suggest that most New Zealanders rode out the early part of the recession with ease: 88 per cent said their health was "good" or better, 85 per cent said their income was enough for their needs, and 84 per cent felt isolated from others only "a little of the time" or never. Asked "how do you feel about your life as a whole?" 86 per cent ticked one of the top two options, "satisfied" or "very satisfied".