Decades of Disparity III: Ethnic and Socioeconomic Inequalities in Mortality, New Zealand 1981–1999

Public Health Intelligence Occasional Bulletin Number 31

Publication Date: May 2006

0-478-29912-5 (Book)
0-478-29913-3 (Website)

HP 4248

Citation: Ministry of health and University of Otago. 2006. Decades of Disparity III: Ethnic and socio-economic inequalities in mortality, New Zealand 1981-1999. Wellington: Ministry of health.

Decades of Disparity III is the third (and last) in the Decades of Disparity series of monitoring reports. These reports utilise linked census and mortality records (the New Zealand Census – Mortality Study) to monitor trends in ethnic and socio-economic inequalities in mortality.

The current report examines the interaction of ethnicity and socioeconomic position in shaping differences in survival chances, as well as trends in this interaction over the 20-year study period.

The key findings are:

Māori were disproportionately represented in lower socioeconomic strata (for example, lower income, no qualifications, no car access), however measured, which implies that Māori are disproportionately affected by the health consequence of lower socioeconomic status
Māori: non-Māori inequalities in mortality largely persist within socioeconomic strata
socioeconomic gradients in mortality exist within both Māori and non-Māori ethnic groups, and are approximately equally steep
the different socioeconomic resources or positions of the Māori and the non-Māori ethnic groups account for at least half of the ethnic disparities in mortality for working-age adults and one-third of the disparities in mortality for older adults
widening inequalities in socioeconomic resources (especially position in the labour market) between Māori and non-Māori during the 1980s and 1990s explain approximately a third to a half of the widening in the mortality disparity between these ethnic groups, at least for the 25–64 age group.

Document availability

Decades of Disparity III is available on this website in PDF format below.

Decades of Disparity III (PDF, 957 kB)