This report uses data from the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey to explore how a range of 30 social and economic indicators vary with education. It provides evidence supporting known economic benefits, and new evidence on a range of social indicators, including health and safety, voting, volunteering, social cohesion, national identity, tolerance and environmental practices.
Purpose
The report makes use of new information from the first New Zealand General Social Survey (NZGSS) to look at how different levels of education are associated with a range of different economic and social indicators. The NZGSS was conducted for the first time between April 2008 and March 2009 and surveyed over 8,700 New Zealanders aged 15 and over. The results in this report are based on some 6,400 adults, representing the population of nearly 2.4 million New Zealanders aged between 25 and 64.
Key Results
This report presents new information from the 2008 New Zealand General Social Survey on how different levels of education are associated with a range of social and economic indicators. It finds that for New Zealanders aged 25 to 64:
- Education was positively associated with:
- Higher income (strongly) and rates of employment (moderately)
- Higher economic standard of living (moderately)
- How healthy you think you are, and not being a smoker (both strongly)
- Higher tolerance of immigrants, different values, ways of living, and ethnic diversity (moderately to strongly)
- Volunteering (moderately)
- Whether you voted (moderately for NZ-born only)
- Whether you lived in a household that recycles (moderately)
- Overall satisfaction with life (weakly to moderately)
- Less feelings of depression (weakly)
- Education did not in the main appear to be associated with:
- Overall mental health
- Job satisfaction
- National identity (for NZ-born adults, but weakly negative for non-NZ-born)
- Feelings of isolation (for NZ-born, weakly negative for non-NZ-born)
- Whether you'd seen family or friends in the last 4 weeks (for NZ-born, but strongly negative for non-NZ-born)
- Whether you lived in a household that did things to save energy or water
- Being a victim of crime or in a traffic accident.
- Many of the wider benefits associated with having a tertiary qualification remained after adjusting for the effects of income, age, gender, and whether people born in NZ or not.
- Low-level (level 1 to 3) post-secondary qualifications are likely to convey some benefits relative to not having a qualification, but fewer benefits than upper-secondary qualifications.
- There were some economic and social benefits for those with year 11 school qualifications who stay on to complete year 12 or 13 school qualifications.
- Adults without qualifications face significant disadvantage across many non-economic indicators, as well as across indicators such as employment and income.