This is a press release from the Helen Clark Foundation about a new report it has released.
Financial stress, crumbling institutional trust, and rising isolation are pulling New Zealanders apart, a new report from The Helen Clark Foundation reveals.
The second annual Social Cohesion in New Zealand report found the country’s social fabric is fraying on almost every measure. The survey of nearly 3,000 New Zealanders is the second instalment of what is now an annual tracking programme, enabling year-on-year comparisons for the first time.
"The results are both frightening and hopeful,” economist and co-author Shambeel Eaqub says.
“New Zealand still has strong foundations, but there are growing cracks in how people experience fairness, opportunity and connection. Financial stress is the dominant driver.”
The steepest declines were in beliefs about fairness and institutional integrity in New Zealand. Trust in the government dropped from 42% to 39%. The share of people believing hard work leads to a better life fell 7 points to 45%. Attitudes toward immigration are becoming more negative, mirroring trends seen internationally.
Drawing on two full years of survey data - more than 5,500 responses - the report identifies three distinct groups of New Zealanders:
● The Connected (30%): High levels of belonging, institutional trust, and acceptance of others.
● The Ambivalent (41%): Moderate belonging but low participation. Includes most older homeowners, retirees, and centre-right voters.
● The Alienated (28%): Disconnected from institutions and conventional civic life, but often actively engaged in protest and online political activity. Almost half of Māori and Pasifika respondents fall into this group, as do nearly half of Green voters and seven in 10 NZ First voters.
“We have three very different New Zealands living alongside each other. Financial stress, political allegiance, institutional distrust, and social isolation are reinforcing each other, producing a population that is frustrated and disconnecting from the conventional institutions we rely on for collective decision-making,” Eaqub says.
The research finds financial stress is the single biggest driver of low social cohesion. People struggling to make ends meet are significantly less likely to feel connected, trust institutions, or participate in community life. At the same time, loneliness and isolation are rising. “Isolation doesn’t mean people disengage entirely,” Eaqub says.
“But it does change how they participate - away from traditional institutions and toward more oppositional or online forms of engagement.”
What needs to change
The report is not without cause for optimism. Over 80% of New Zealanders feel a sense of national belonging and pride in the New Zealand way of life - figures that have held steady year on year. Young New Zealanders are more aspirational than any other age group, even as they experience the worst social cohesion outcomes. The Foundation is calling for a more coordinated, long-term approach to social cohesion - including aligning economic and social policy, and investing in sustained community initiatives rather than short-term programmes.
“Social cohesion isn’t a ‘nice to have’ - it’s what allows a country to make difficult decisions and navigate long-term challenges,” Eaqub says.
“It happens when communities have the support and conditions to solve problems together, manage differences, and care for each other over time. If we want a resilient, inclusive New Zealand, strengthening social cohesion is vital.”
About the report
Social Cohesion in New Zealand (April 2026) is the second annual report from The Helen Clark Foundation’s social cohesion research programme. The 2025 survey of 2,882 New Zealanders was conducted by Talbot Mills Research with booster samples for Māori, Pacific, and Asian communities. Research is led by Shamubeel Eaqub and Rosie Collins.
About the Helen Clark Foundation
The Helen Clark Foundation is an independent, non-partisan public policy think tank based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. It focuses on developing solutions to New Zealand’s long-term policy challenges.
4 Comments
Some key points. Young people are the future. Home ownership anchors belonging. Belonging is critical to social cohesion. Financial stress is a dominant driver of low belonging, low trust, high isolation, and negative attitudes to immigration. So...whats draining NZ of its cumulative effort, driving our youth offshore, and crushing future belonging, connection, ...and hope?
Its the stupid house prices in relation to our income/economy.
Whether renting or buying, its access to the basic human need of shelter at an affordable price. Without meaningful change like land tax and or lower investor Dti in this area, nothing will change. We simply keep the leverage casino pumping and export societies constructive output to the Global Banking Cartel. Interesting this is not really identified.
How many houses was Helen reported to own again...?
It comes back to previous Govt aided and abetted greed.
Now being withdrawn, by thousand cuts, to property speculators benefits, like a debt druggy going cold turkey.
Glad it is mid colĺapse, into a crumpled heap of positively lower DTIs for families.
Another -30% down over a fews years, is the future.
Nice!
Yip that and offshoring jobs/trades/businesses to countries with cheaper foreign labour has also impacted this the past 3 decades as globalisation become the 'cool' thing to do in order to maximise shareholder wealth - while not worrying about the longer term economic and social implications of doing so.
It meant we got cheaper goods and services in our CPI, meaning we could lower rates and extend more debt against the housing market (making house prices more expensive and some people happy because they felt rich (ie the 'wealth effect')), but it also meant we hollowed out our manufacturing/production base - destroying jobs and opportunities for younger people here and NZ and giving them to people in other countries like China, Vietnam, India etc.
I for one hope we see a reversal in the globalist trend of the past 3 decades so that we cant produce more here locally - creating jobs and businesses opportunities for NZ'ers - but it will mean higher inflation due to the higher wage costs (which are mostly driven by our high housing and rent costs - so as you see its a chicken/egg situation - the past 3 decades we swapped jobs and business opportunities (with people in Asia) for expensive housing - which to me is a very dumb thing to do as a way to run an economy)
Its the stupid house prices in relation to our income/economy.
People need to rethink the meaning of "developed economy." it should mean that the lowest rung on the hierarchy of needs (shelter, food, water, transport) should become more affordable. That means less human labor is exchanged for those needs.
But that is not the case.
Is Aotearoa and the Anglosphere brethren as economcially developed as we think? The Helen Clark Foundation's research doesn't really address all this.
And yes, Helen has done very well out of the ruling elite structures.
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