NZDep2001 Index of Deprivation

Date of publication: August 2002

Department of Public Health, Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Note: This is not a Ministry of Health publication but is provided here in the interests of making the information easier to find.

Executive Summary

NZDep2001 Index of Deprivation is an updated version of the NZDep91 and NZDep96 indexes of socioeconomic deprivation. NZDep2001 combines nine variables from the 2001 census which reflect eight dimensions of deprivation. NZDep2001 provides a deprivation score for each meshblock in New Zealand. Meshblocks are geographical units defined by Statistics New Zealand, containing a median of approximately 90 people in 2001.

The NZDep2001 index of deprivation has two forms—an ordinal scale and a continuous score.

• The NZDep2001 index of deprivation ordinal scale ranges from 1 to 10, where 1 represents the areas with the least deprived scores and 10 the areas with the most
• The NZDep2001 index of deprivation interval variable is the first principal component score, which has been scaled to have mean 1000 index points and standard deviation 100 index points. The NZDep2001 10 point scale is derived from this interval variable.
  

The NZDep2001 scale of deprivation from 1 to 10 divides New Zealand into tenths of the distribution of the first principal component scores. For example, a value of 10 indicates that the meshblock is in the most deprived 10 percent of areas in New Zealand, according the NZDep2001 scores.

It should be noted that NZDep2001 deprivation scores apply to areas rather than individual people.

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NZDep2001 Index of Deprivation (available from the Public Health Intelligence webpages)



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Related information

Deprivation profiles for District Health Boards

2001 Census Population spreadsheet