Top of the South Indicators Report 2009

The three councils produced the report together because they are required by legislation to monitor community wellbeing. It is similar to the major Quality of Life reports produced for the country's main centres and looks at how well the region is doing socially, culturally, environmentally and economically. The report will be prepared every three years to see how communities are progressing towards achieving their goals - or 'community outcomes'. This was the first report of its kind so it sets the baseline for later year's reports to begin to show trends.

The report was coordinated by a working party including the three councils, the Ministry for Social Development, Nelson Regional Economic Development Agency and the Nelson Marlborough District Health Board.  It covers social, cultural, environmental and economic wellbeing and shows results for the three council areas compared to the national average.

Results

The report shows top of the South residents enjoy lower levels of unemployment, longer life expectancy, higher levels of participation in physical activities, educational attainment and feelings of safety in their environment.

Local election voting is also higher across the top of the South than the national average of 43% in the 2007 local government elections. In Nelson it was 51%, with 55% in Tasman and 52% in Marlborough.

Our levels of air pollution, soil and swimming water quality, contamination and levels of recycling are all closely monitored to ensure national standards are being met.

Languages spoken across the region show our growing cultural mix. In Nelson, after English, Maori is spoken by 2.3% of the population compared to 4.1% nationally. Of Nelson Maori, 18.9% speak Te Reo Māori compared to 23.7% of Maori nationally. In Tasman, German is the next most common language spoken by 1.8% of the population, and Te Reo Maori by 14.9% of Maori, and in Marlborough 2.3% of the population speak Maori while 15.9% of Maori speak their language.

The top of the south economy is faring reasonably well, with 264 residential building permits issued in 2008 for Tasman, 323 for Nelson and 337 in Marlborough. Employment increased across the top of the south ahead of the national average between 2001 and 2006.

Download

Download the Top of the South Indicators Report September 2009 (5.2MB PDF).

Contact

For more information, contact the Monitoring and Research staff on +64 3 546 0227.