The Distribution of Socioeconomic Deprivation Within the Māori and European Populations in Aotearoa New Zealand, 1991, 2001, and 2023

This study aimed to determine the distribution of socioeconomic deprivation within the Māori and European populations in Aotearoa New Zealand in 1991, 2001, and 2023. NZDep is an index of relative socioeconomic deprivation for small areas based on data from the Census of Population and Dwellings. A socioeconomic deprivation score from 1 (least socioeconomically deprived 10% of small areas) to 10 (most socioeconomically deprived 10%) was assigned to the usually resident population of (1) Māori (defined as Total and Sole) and (2) European (defined as Sole and non‐Māori, non‐Pacific, non‐Asian (nMnPnA)), using the 1991, 2001 and 2023 versions of NZDep. The results showed that the proportion of total Māori living in the least socioeconomically deprived areas increased between 1991 and 2023 from 2.3% to 4.3%, and the proportion of Māori living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas decreased from 27.5% to 24.2%. However, the overall picture shows that Māori continue to live predominantly in areas of high relative socioeconomic deprivation compared with the sole European population. Despite over three decades of social and economic development, there has been minimal progress in addressing relative socioeconomic deprivation among Māori.