A national survey has found that mental health is declining in New Zealand.
Stats NZ's wellbeing survey of 3500 people was conducted from April 1 2021 - a year after the first COVID-19 lockdown - and finished early on August 17 that year due to the first community outbreak of the Delta variant.
The proportion of people with poor mental wellbeing increased across all age groups compared with 2018.
There was a significant decrease in the proportion of people who felt it was easy to be themselves in New Zealand, from 83.8 percent in 2018 to 80 percent in 2021.
This decrease was seen across many different population groups. People are also becoming more accepting of mental illness, with 54.8 percent saying they would feel comfortable having a new neighbour with mental illness, up from 57.9 percent in 2018.
"Disabled people, single parents, and people who identified as LGBT+ or belonged to a sexual minority, were amongst those who experienced higher rates of poor overall mental wellbeing," said wellbeing statistics senior manager Becky Collett.
The survey also found Māori had lower life satisfaction and were more likely to have experienced discrimination compared with the total population.
Pakeha people were more likely - 24.2 percent - to have good outcomes in all aspects of wellbeing, when compared to Māori - 13 percent - and Pacific people - 10.2 percent - and Asian people - 10.4 percent.
A more positive outcome from the survey for Māori was that the ability for New Zealanders to speak te reo in day-to-day conversations has improved.
Since 2018, the proportion of people able to speak more than a few words or phrases of te reo Māori rose from 24 percent to 30 percent.
This follows a previous, smaller, rise between 2016 and 2018. Support for the use of teo Māori increased since 2018.
The survey found 62 percent of people - more than half the country - agreed that te reo Māori should be a core subject in primary schools, up from 57 percent.
Similar increases were observed between 2016 and 2018, showing a consistent rise in support for te Māori use.
A large increase was seen in the proportion of people aged 25 to 34 who said they could speak te reo Māori at least fairly well - from 6.3 percent to 13 percent.
The younger age groups tended to be more supportive of the use of te reo Māori.
"We can see from the data that younger New Zealanders are championing improvements in te reo Māori proficiency and support," said Collett.
"This gives important insight into the ongoing revitalisation of te reo Māori in Aotearoa."
