Wealth Disparities in New Zealand: Preliminary Report Providing Updated Data from SOFIE

Abstract

Over the period 2002 to 2010, Statistics New Zealand carried out a longitudinal survey known as the Survey of Family, Income and Employment (SoFIE). Some eight waves of data were collected. Every second wave (2003/2004, 2005/2006, 2007/2008, and 2009/2010), respondents were asked questions about their wealth holdings. In 2007 Statistics New Zealand published a paper by Jit Cheung, Wealth Disparities in New Zealand, based on data from wave 2. That paper provided an overview of net worth disparity, giving information by mean and by median, and other distribution information including the Gini coefficient and other percentile-based information. Results were also analysed by age, by major ethnic group, by family type, and also by gender, personal income decile, and region. This preliminary paper is the initial part of a project to use data from those waves. The project has two principal purposes: 1. To update the Cheung 2007 paper to include data from waves 4, 6 and 8 of SoFIE; and in addition to extend the format of the results reported by Cheung based on wave 2 of SoFIE to include information as to the extent to which survey respondents in specified wealth subdivisions moved between such sub-divisions over the course of the survey. 2. To demonstrate the richness of the information gathered by SoFIE and to encourage further exploration of the survey’s wealth data.