NZ farmers report high life satisfaction in 2025 rural survey

In 2025, expanded topics included winter grazing practices, forestry risk, biosecurity, volatility in input and output prices, life satisfaction, disaster preparedness, trustworthiness of advice, and the regulatory environment.

It also included questions on climate beliefs, adoption of new technologies, and catchment groups.

The findings highlight a mix of strong wellbeing, shifting priorities, and evolving attitudes across the rural sector.

Key results include:

Farmers, foresters and growers report high life satisfaction, particularly as they become older. If farmers over 70 were a country, they would have the second-highest life satisfaction in the world, behind only Finland.Livestock farmers have prioritised improving productivity, animal welfare and soil health in recent years. Reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, improving native biodiversity, and improving biosecurity have been less of a focus.Younger farmers are most likely to have adopted new technologies, particularly new pasture and crop varieties and precision farming tools, with productivity the main driver.Twenty-seven per cent of respondents are current or former catchment group members, with the opportunity to work collectively on shared challenges a key motivator.Sixty-nine per cent of respondents believe climate change is occurring. Of those, 83% believe humans are a driver, while 56% have made changes to their properties due to extreme weather events.

More information on the Survey of Rural Decision Makers 2025 can be found here.