Racial Discrimination 2023/24: New Zealand Health Survey

This page summarises information on adults’ self-reported experiences of racial discrimination in New Zealand. This includes ethnically motivated personal attack (verbal or physical), and unfair treatment in health care, employment or housing. Data was collected in the racial discrimination module included in the 2011/12, 2016/17, 2020/21 and 2023/24 New Zealand Health Survey (Health Survey).

Key findings

• Experience of racial discrimination has increased since 2011/12. Experience of racial discrimination in the past 12 months increased from 5.9% in 2011/12 to 9.1% in 2023/24. Lifetime experience increased from 16.2% in 2011/12 to 23.8% in 2023/24.
• Māori, Pacific Peoples and Asian Peoples are more likely than non-Māori/non-Pacific/non-Asian (non-MPA) adults to experience racial discrimination. In the 12 months before the 2023/24 survey, 14% of Māori adults, 13.2% of Pacific Peoples, 14.5% of Asian Peoples and 6.3% of non-MPA adults experienced racial discrimination.
• Verbal abuse was the most common type of racial discrimination that all ethnic groups experienced in the 12 months before the 2023/24 survey (9.4% of Māori adults, 6.9% of Pacific Peoples, 9.4% of Asian Peoples and 3.8% of non-MPA adults).
• Racial discrimination is associated with higher rates of psychological distress and lower rates of good/very good/excellent self-rated health.

How to interpret the results

The results show adults’ (15 years and older) self-reported experiences of racial discrimination in New Zealand, covering two timeframes: the past 12 months and over a lifetime. Interactive graphs are used to present the findings. Hover to view values, and use the menu in the top-right corner to download the chart or view the underlying data.

In this report, experiences of racial discrimination are grouped into two main types:

• Ethnically motivated personal attack, including:
  • verbal abuse
  • physical abuse
• Ethnically motivated unfair treatment, including:
  • by a health professional
  • at work or refusal of a job
  • when renting or buying housing

A diagram showing how these indicators fit together is included in the methodology section.

Results are presented for the following groups: Māori, Pacific Peoples, Asian Peoples, and non-Māori, non-Pacific, non-Asian (non-MPA). All groups refer to adults (15 years and older). We use total-response ethnicity for Māori, Pacific, and Asian groups, meaning people are counted in every group they identify with. The comparator group, non-MPA, includes people who identify as European, Middle Eastern/Latin American/African (MELAA) and/or Other and do not also identify as Māori, Pacific or Asian. As most of this group are European, the results mainly reflect European experiences rather than those of MELAA or Other peoples.

The data comes from self-reported experiences and may underestimate experiences of racial discrimination, particularly for Māori, Pacific Peoples and Asian Peoples. Limitations include restricted question scope (covering only certain settings and forms of discrimination), potential reluctance to disclose experiences, recall bias, and differences in interpretation. Additionally, the survey does not measure frequency or intensity, and is cross-sectional, limiting causal insights. For more information, see the Possible under-reporting of racial discrimination methodology section.

Experience of racial discrimination has increased since 2011/12

Almost one in 10 adults (9.1%) experienced racial discrimination in the past 12 months, according to the 2023/24 Health Survey. This equates to around 391,000 people. Almost one in 4 adults (23.8%), or around 1 million people, have experienced racial discrimination in their lifetime.

The proportion of adults who have experienced racial discrimination has increased since 2011/12 (Figure 1). Experience of racial discrimination in the past 12 months increased from 5.9% in 2011/12 to 9.1% in 2023/24. Lifetime experience of racial discrimination increased from 16.2% to 23.8% over the same period.

Māori, Pacific Peoples, and Asian Peoples had higher rates of racial discrimination

Māori, Pacific Peoples and Asian Peoples had higher rates of racial discrimination than non-MPA adults (Figure 2). In the 12 months before the 2023/24 survey, 14% of Māori adults, 13.2% of Pacific Peoples, and 14.5% of Asian Peoples had experienced racial discrimination, compared with 6.3% of non-MPA adults.

Māori, Pacific Peoples, and Asian Peoples have reported higher rates of racial discrimination than non-MPA adults each time this has been measured. Within the 2023/24 survey, men and women reported similar experiences.

Since 2011/12, the proportion of Māori and non-MPA adults who experienced racial discrimination in the past 12 months has increased (Figure 3). The increase for Pacific Peoples was similar to Māori and non-MPA, and the proportion for Asian Peoples has remained similar to 2011/12.

Verbal abuse was the most common type of ethnically motivated personal attack

In the 12 months before the 2023/24 survey, 5.9% or around 254,000 adults experienced ethnically motivated personal attacks (including verbal or physical abuse). Māori (9.8%), Pacific Peoples (7.1%) and Asian Peoples (10.1%) had higher rates of experiencing ethnically motivated personal attacks than non-MPA adults (3.9%) (Figure 4). Verbal abuse was the most common type of ethnically motivated personal attack experienced by all ethnic groups examined.

Ethnically motivated unfair treatment

In this report, ethnically motivated unfair treatment includes unfair treatment by a health professional, unfair treatment at work or refusal of a job, or unfair treatment when renting or buying housing.

In 2023/24, 4.6% or around 198,000 adults experienced unfair treatment on the basis of ethnicity in the past 12 months.

Māori, Pacific Peoples and Asian Peoples had higher rates than non-MPA adults of experiencing unfair treatment in the past 12 months on the basis of ethnicity. Among Māori specifically, women were more likely than men to report experiencing unfair treatment, both in the past 12 months and over their lifetime. In the 12 months before the 2023/24 survey, 9.5% of Māori women experienced unfair treatment on the basis of ethnicity, compared with 4.8% of Māori men.

Unfair treatment by a health professional appeared to be the most common type of unfair treatment experienced in the past 12 months for both Māori and non-MPA adults (Figure 5). Unfair treatment at work or refusal of a job appeared to be the most common type of unfair treatment in the past 12 months for Pacific Peoples and Asian Peoples.

Racial discrimination is associated with poorer health outcomes

The results in this section show two indicators of health (psychological distress and self-rated health) for people who had experienced racial discrimination in the past 12 months. These figures only show associations between health outcomes and discrimination rather than cause-and-effect relationships, and other factors may contribute to the differences. For example, we don’t know from the data whether people experienced psychological distress as a result of experiencing racial discrimination.

Psychological distress

In this section, psychological distress refers to experiencing high or very level of psychological distress in the past 4 weeks. Respondents are categorised as experiencing high or very high psychological distress if they have a score of 12 or more on the 10-question Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10).

People who experienced racial discrimination in the 12 months before the 2023/24 survey had almost twice the rate of psychological distress (22.6%) than people who had not experienced racial discrimination (11.9%). Māori, Asian Peoples and non-MPA adults who experienced racial discrimination in the past 12 months had a higher rate of psychological distress than people who did not (Figure 6). The increase for Pacific Peoples was similar to Māori, Pacific and non-MPA.

Self-rated health

Respondents are categorised as having good or better self-rated health if they answered ‘good’, ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’ to the question: “In general, would you say your health is excellent, very good, good, fair or poor?”

People who experienced racial discrimination in the 12 months before the 2023/24 survey had a lower rate of good, very good or excellent self-rated health (75.9%) than people who did not experience racial discrimination (86.7%). Māori, Pacific Peoples and non-MPA adults who experienced racial discrimination in the past 12 months had a lower rate of good, very good or excellent self-rated health than people who did not (Figure 7). For Asian Peoples, the rate of good, very good or excellent self-rated health was similar for people who experienced racial discrimination in the past 12 months and those who did not.

Methodology

The data was collected from the Health Survey racial discrimination module. This module was included in the adult questionnaire in 2011/12, 2016/17, 2020/21 and 2023/24. See the Questionnaires and Content Guide 2023/24 for more information about the survey modules and racial discrimination questions.

The full list of indicators available is shown below.

Types of racism

Racism appears in different forms, including the following:

• Internalised racism: The acceptance and internalisation of oppressive or dominant values, beliefs, attitudes and stereotypes about one’s own race. It occurs within an individual.
• Interpersonal racism: When individuals interact with others and their personal racial prejudice affects how they act and behave (overtly, covertly, conscious, unconscious, implicit, explicit) towards racialised ‘others’. It occurs between individuals.
• Institutional racism: Policies, practices and laws that, intentionally or not, exclude and foster the unequal distribution of power and privilege. It determines differential access to goods, services and the opportunities of society based on race. It occurs within an institution or system.
• Structural racism: The cumulative impact of multiple institutions that fosters racial inequity through mutually reinforcing policies, practices, and laws (that is, housing, employment, education, etc). It occurs among institutions or systems and is a feature of the social, economic and political systems in which we all exist.

This report mostly reflects experiences of interpersonal discrimination.

Differences from previous releases

Results may differ from earlier publications because population updates have been applied retrospectively to historic estimates. The treatment of partial non-response and non-response adjustments in this analysis may differ from previous approaches. The use of the non-MPA comparator ethnic group also differs from some regular Health Survey outputs and earlier publications. Comparisons should be made with care.

Use of statistical significance

This report primarily focuses on differences that are statistically significant. However, it is important to note that for smaller population groups, such as Pacific Peoples, larger differences between estimates are required to reach statistical significance.

Statistical significance is tested using a t-test. Non-overlapping confidence intervals are a good indication that a difference is statistically significant, but difference with overlapping confidence intervals can still be statistically significant.

Possible under-reporting of racial discrimination

The data in this report comes from self-reported experiences of racial discrimination. This may underestimate experience of racial discrimination, particularly for Māori, Pacific Peoples and Asian Peoples.

The survey results may under-report experiences of racial discrimination for the following reasons:

• The data covers experiences of only some forms of racial discrimination, and it mostly reflects experiences of interpersonal discrimination.
• The questions ask about unfair treatment in some settings (health care, employment and housing), but not others such as education and shops. The questions also don’t cover racial discrimination experienced through digital communication such as social media.
• People may be reluctant to disclose their experiences of racial discrimination and may provide socially acceptable responses.
• People may interpret similar experiences in different ways. They also may not consciously recognise that they have experienced racial discrimination.
• Recall bias may affect the data, particularly where respondents report on their lifetime experience of racial discrimination.
• The questions only cover racial discrimination that people experienced in New Zealand.

The questions do not ask about other forms of discrimination that people may have experienced. They do not capture information on experience of discrimination for multiple social markers of difference (eg, disability, gender, sexuality, religion). The questions also don’t measure the intensity of the experience. They provide limited information on how frequently people experienced racial discrimination over time.

Classification of response data

• If a respondent reported any relevant experience (eg, verbal abuse), they were classified as having experienced racial discrimination for that timeframe even if other items were missing.
• If a respondent answered “no” to all relevant items, they were classified as not having experienced racial discrimination for that timeframe.
• Mixed “no” and missing responses were treated as item non-response and adjusted using standard Health Survey item non-response methods.

Please see the Methodology Report 2023/24 for full details on survey design, sampling and weighting, fieldwork procedures, and confidence intervals.