Summary:
The wealth disparity between Māori and Pākehā is large, and increasing
Disparities within each age group are significant, rebutting the idea that wealth inequality simply reflects the ageing process
Gender disparities in wealth do not appear significant, but there are reasons to be sceptical about the data
The ethnic wealth gap remains large
The typical person of European descent has over four times the wealth of the typical Māori person, according to recently released data.
Two weeks ago, the Good IDEAs Bulletin covered the headline findings – including an overall increase in wealth disparities of over $1 million – from the 2023-24 survey of New Zealanders’ net worth. This week, we take a look at the disparities for different demographics.
The most striking of those disparities are arguably those that concern ethnicity. As the table below demonstrates, there are large differences in median wealth, which is the net worth of the person in the middle of the distribution for each ethnicity. (In the following tables, the figures are in thousands of dollars, except for the Ratio figures.)
