Quality of life

Why is this important?

Quality of life is a subjective measure of wellbeing. People's satisfaction with their overall quality of life provides a self-assessed measure. How people feel about their life is one of the key ways to assess the health of our communities. 

Key points

• Results from the 2018 Canterbury Wellbeing Survey show that just over eight in ten (81%) Greater Christchurch residents rate their quality of life positively.
• The proportion rating their quality of life positively has remained stable since April 2016, following a significant increase in the six months before that (from 77%) in September 2015. The overall upward trend is statistically significant.

Note this is an interactive chart and you can click on the legend items to change what is shown on the graph.

Commentary

Eighty-nine percent of those living in the Selwyn District rate their quality of life positively. This is similar to June 2017 (86.1%). For those living in Waimakariri District, the proportion rating quality of life positively was 81.9% in 2018 from 85.3% in 2017.

Christchurch City residents continue to rate their quality of life less positively than residents of Selwyn and Waimakariri Districts, (79.4% rating it as good or extremely good), a slight decrease from 2017 (81%).

Note: None of the changes between years were statistically significant.

In the 2018 survey, those more likely to rate their overall quality of life positively were:

• Of European ethnicity (compared to Maori and Pacific/Asian/Indian)
• Had higher incomes – quality of life increased as household income increased.
• Those without a long-term health condition or disability (compared to those with one).

There were no statistically significant differences by:

• Gender
• Age

Note: this commentary is adapted from the Canterbury Health and Wellbeing survey 2017. Reproduced with permission.