New Zealand’s social fabric is fraying on almost every measure, according to a major new report that finds financial hardship has become the dominant force driving communities apart.
The second annual Social Cohesion in New Zealand report, released by the Helen Clark Foundation, surveyed 2,882 New Zealand adults in late 2025 and compared results with the previous year’s findings. What it found was a country under strain — not primarily along lines of age, ethnicity, or politics, but along the fault lines of financial security and opportunity.
Economist Shamubeel Eaqub, who co-authored the report, said the picture was both troubling and, in parts, hopeful. “The results are both frightening and hopeful. New Zealand still has strong foundations, but there are growing cracks in how people experience fairness, opportunity and connection. Financial stress is the dominant driver,” he said.
The report divides New Zealanders into three broad groups. Roughly 30 per cent are characterised as “The Connected” — people with strong community ties, high trust in institutions, and a broadly positive sense of belonging. Another 41 per cent fall into an “Ambivalent” middle group who hold moderate levels of cohesion but participate little in civic or community life, and tend to be older homeowners or retirees. The final group — 28 per cent, described as “The Alienated” — is disconnected from mainstream institutions but is active in protest and online political activity. Eaqub described the situation plainly. “We have three very different New Zealands living alongside each other,” he said.
What distinguishes someone’s likely group membership is not primarily where they were born or what they look like — it is whether they are under financial pressure. People struggling to make ends meet are markedly less likely to feel connected, to trust public institutions, or to engage in community life in the conventional sense. The correlation runs throughout the data.
Trust in the government slipped from 42 per cent to 39 per cent over the year. Trust in the courts fell more sharply — from 57 per cent to 45 per cent — the largest single-year drop recorded in the survey’s history. The share of New Zealanders who believe that hard work leads to a better life has dropped seven percentage points to just 45 per cent. As RNZ reports, fewer than half of us now believe effort reliably leads to reward — a finding that would have seemed remarkable just a decade ago.
These trends are feeding into a broader sense of disconnection. The report found that nearly two in three New Zealanders under 30 say they feel isolated at least some of the time. The proportion who feel isolated often has risen from around one per cent in 2010 to 14 per cent in 2025 — a fourteen-fold increase over fifteen years. Young people in this country are simultaneously the most aspirational age group and the one with the weakest cohesion outcomes, suggesting that ambition alone is not enough when the structural conditions that reward it are not in place.
Attitudes toward immigration have also become more negative, mirroring shifts seen in a number of other comparable countries. The report’s authors caution against reading this as a simple rejection of newcomers. Rather, it appears to reflect a broader anxiety about change and opportunity at a time when many people feel their own economic security is not assured. When people are worried about their own position, they become warier of competition and change — a pattern that has appeared in survey data from countries across the developed world.
Eaqub placed the findings in a wider context of what social cohesion is for and why it matters. “Financial stress, political allegiance, institutional distrust, and social isolation are reinforcing each other, producing a population that is frustrated and disconnecting from the conventional institutions we rely on for collective decision-making,” he said.
The report is careful to note what has not collapsed. More than 80 per cent of New Zealanders still feel pride in the New Zealand way of life and culture. A strong sense of belonging to this country remains a widely held value. These foundations matter — they represent the bedrock on which a recovery in cohesion can be built, if the underlying pressures are addressed.
The report identifies one consistently positive pattern. When New Zealanders have meaningful contact with people from different backgrounds — not just passive proximity, but real interaction — prejudice tends to fall and connection tends to grow. This finding points toward the kinds of community investments the data suggests would do the most practical good.
“Social cohesion isn’t a ‘nice to have’ — it’s what allows a country to make difficult decisions and navigate long-term challenges. It happens when communities have the support and conditions to solve problems together, manage differences, and care for each other over time. If we want a resilient, inclusive New Zealand, strengthening social cohesion is vital,” Eaqub said.
The timing of the report is pointed. As New Zealand marks ANZAC Day tomorrow, the occasion calls on a set of values — shared sacrifice, community, collective purpose — that the data suggests are under more pressure than they have been in a generation. The day will go ahead as it always does, with dawn services and wreath-laying and the Last Post echoing across the country. But the question of what holds New Zealanders together, and what threatens to pull them apart, will not be resolved by a public holiday.
Detailed coverage of the report and its methodology is available from interest.co.nz and Scoop. The full report can be read at the Helen Clark Foundation website.
What do you think is the biggest factor pulling New Zealanders apart? Share your view in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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