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Discrimination

People and groups who are discriminated against may not be able to participate fully in society and discrimination also affects mental and physical wellbeing. Racism is one of the most common forms of discrimination [30] and is an important health and wellbeing determinant that contributes to ethnic inequities in physical and mental health, self-rated health, and overall life satisfaction [31].

This indicator presents the proportion of those aged 15 years and over who reported being discriminated against in the past 12 months, as reported in the New Zealand General Social Survey. Discrimination was defined as being treated unfairly or differently compared to other people, because of the group a person belonged to, or seemed to belong to.

The figure shows two data sets: the proportion of respondents who were discriminated against in the past 12 months for the periods 2008 to 2012 and 2014 to 2021. The two separate time series reflect a change to the wording of the discrimination question in the New Zealand General Social Survey. In the earlier series, the question referred to being ‘treated unfairly or had something nasty done to you’ whereas in the later series, the question referred to being ‘treated unfairly or differently compared to other people’. The later question represents a broader concept of discrimination and the resulting higher proportion of respondents reporting discrimination based on this definition can be seen, for 2014 to 2021, compared with 2008 to 2012. Based on the revised question, in 2021, 19.2 percent of Canterbury respondents reported that they had been discriminated against in some way in the past 12 months (21.7% for New Zealand).