Security: in the Global Peace Index, New Zealand moved up two slots to third place<\/a> globally (behind Iceland and Ireland, but best in the Asia-Pacific) for safety and security, low domestic and international conflict, and degree of militarisation.<\/p>\n Corruption: Transparency International recorded a gradual decline from being in equal top place in 2021 to fourth in the latest survey<\/a> \u2013 but still relatively corruption-free.<\/p>\n Gender equality: the annual Global Gender Gap Report<\/a> recorded New Zealand slipping a place to fifth most gender-equal country (but top in the Pacific region).<\/p>\n Rule of Law: a continued improvement in the World Justice Project\u2019s Rule of Law Index<\/a> saw the country ranked fifth globally.<\/p>\n Quality of life: The Economist Global Liveability Index placed Auckland seventh most liveable<\/a> city in the world.<\/p>\n Start your day informed. Make room for newsroom’s top stories. Direct to your inbox daily.<\/p>\n Doing well or better<\/p>\n Economic freedom: the Index for Economic Freedom<\/a>, which covers everything from property rights to financial freedom, placed New Zealand 11th \u2013 down from sixth last year, but still \u201cmostly free\u201d.<\/p>\n Happiness: New Zealanders are not quite as happy as they were, slipping a place to the 12th most-cheery nation in the World Happiness Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Media freedom: the country began to climb back in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index<\/a>, up from 19th last year to 16th.<\/p>\n Competitiveness: New Zealand moved up a spot in the Global Competitiveness Report<\/a>, now in 31st place (but still well below the 20th ranking from 2021).<\/p>\n Innovation: on the Global Innovation Index<\/a>, which measures a range of social and economic indicators, New Zealand slipped one place to 26th.<\/p>\n Economic performance: The Economist ranked New Zealand as the 31st best-performing economy<\/a> in 2025, up two places from 2024.<\/p>\n Foreign aid: New Zealand\u2019s overseas development aid continued to increase to an estimated $US780.8 million, representing 0.32 percent of gross national income<\/a>, placing it 17th among OECD-ranked countries.<\/p>\n Terrorism: the Global Terrorism Index<\/a> recorded a significant improvement of 42 places, with New Zealand now ranked 94th and \u201cvery low\u201d risk. While the national terror threat level remained low<\/a> (meaning a terror attack is a realistic possibility), this was a positive development.<\/p>\n Room for improvement<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence: a \u201clight touch<\/a>\u201d policy approach to artificial intelligence (AI) regulation will not have improved a relatively low 43rd ranking in the Global Index on Responsible AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n Employment: economic numbers at home told another mixed story, with unemployment growing to 5.3 percent<\/a> (160,000 people) in the September quarter \u2013 now above the OECD average<\/a>.<\/p>\n Inflation: the inflation rate fell rapidly but has now pushed back to 3 percent<\/a> \u2013 lower than the anticipated OECD average<\/a> of 4.2 percent but higher than the 2.4 percent anticipated earlier.<\/p>\n Public housing: as of October, the total stock of public houses<\/a> continued to grow, up to 87,338 (an increase of 7875 since the middle of 2023), but supply remains well behind demand.<\/p>\n Housing affordability: good or bad news according to one\u2019s perspective, the average house price was $907,274<\/a>, considerably down from its peak at the turn of 2022 but largely unchanged since last year.<\/p>\n Incomes: median weekly earnings from wages and salaries increased by $37 to $1380<\/a> in the year to June, but lagged behind the inflation rate.<\/p>\n Must do better<\/p>\n Climate change: the Climate Change Performance Index<\/a> recorded another fall for New Zealand, now down to 44th position and classified as an overall \u201clow\u201d performer.<\/p>\n Suicide rate: there were 630 suspected self-inflicted deaths<\/a> in the 2023\u201324 financial year (the latest available statistics), a small increase on the year before. That represents a rate of 11 per 100,000 people \u2013 lower than the average rate over the past 15 years, although the rate of decrease seems to have stalled.<\/p>\n Prisons: incarceration rates are growing fast, moving past 10,680<\/a> people behind bars in March (up from a low of 7500 in 2022), with strong growth projected.<\/p>\n Gangs: the estimated number of patched gang members and prospects passed the 10,000 mark<\/a> for the first time.<\/p>\n Child poverty: figures from early 2025 suggested little or no change<\/a> in the child poverty rate from the year before, with one in seven children living in households experiencing material hardship.<\/p>\n Mental health: UNICEF scored New Zealand a less than reputable 32nd place<\/a> for worsening youth mental health rates.<\/p>\n Homelessness: estimates put the likely number people living without shelter in New Zealand at more than 5000<\/a>.<\/p>\n Migration: a net migration gain<\/a> in the year to October of 12,400 was the lowest since 2013 (excluding the COVID years). This disguised a dizzying churn between arrivals (138,900) and departures (126,400), with more than 46,400 citizens leaving for Australia.<\/p>\n In short, 2025 was a difficult year. New Zealand often scores well or shows improvement on global indexes, but look closer to home and the devil is in the detail. To borrow a phrase from old school reports: shows great potential but needs to try harder.<\/p>\n Alexander Gillespie<\/a>, Professor of Law, University of Waikato<\/a><\/p>\n This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Analysis: Standardised testing and regular progress assessment became key features of the education system this year, so why…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[390,11220,84,79983,266,1184,3339,917,6148,1073,111,43,139,69,550,11219],"class_list":{"0":"post-206612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-climate-change","9":"tag-comment","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-foreign-affairs","12":"tag-government","13":"tag-health-science","14":"tag-housing","15":"tag-immigration","16":"tag-justice","17":"tag-media","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-social-issues","23":"tag-sustainable-future"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767008415_973_DailyBriefing_HighRes_White.png\")
<\/p>\n