Poverty rates decline - survey

According to the MSD's analysis of data from the three-yearly Household Economic Survey, the proportion of New Zealanders living in families earning below 60 per cent of the median has fallen from 22 per cent in 2001 to 19 per cent in 2004.

The analysis also shows:

# The proportion of dependent children below the poverty line has fallen from 27 per cent to 21 per cent.

# The proportion of children in sole parent families below the poverty line fell from 61 to 43 per cent.

# The number of poor households spending more than 30 per cent of their income on housing had fallen from 42 per cent to 35 per cent.

# Income inequality increased slightly between 2001 and 2004 in line with a trend starting in the 1980s.

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