Global General

Special

Newsmaker

Asia Pacific

America

Middle East

Europe

Africa

New Zealanders happier despite lack of wealth: OECD report

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-05-05 10:40

WELLINGTON -- A report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed New Zealanders are satisfied with their lives even though they are not especially rich, the New Zealand Herald reported on Tuesday.

The latest OECD report "Society at a Glance" showed New Zealanders rank sixth out of 30 in terms of overall satisfaction with life but are in the bottom third in terms of income per capita,

New Zealanders also spend less time watching television than people in other industrialized countries, the report showed.
Just 25 percent of New Zealanders' leisure time is spent in front of the TV, the lowest percentage of the 18 OECD countries whose leisure statistics were studied.

But the statistics belie perceptions of New Zealand as a sports mad nation.

New Zealanders join Belgians, Americans and Mexicans in using only 5 percent of their leisure time in sports activities.

Crime is high with New Zealand, second only to Ireland in internationally comparable data on vehicle, theft and "contact" crimes. 22 percent of New Zealanders experienced such a crime in a 12- month period, compared with an OECD average of 16 percent.

While most OECD countries have higher suicide rates for older people, New Zealand and Norway were unusual in having higher suicide rates for young adults than for the old, the report showed.