PremiumEditorialEditorialNZ Herald1 Aug, 2026 06:00 PM5 mins to readAbout 20% of New Zealand children live below the poverty line, with another 13% struggling in what the Child Poverty Action Group calls "extreme poverty". THE FACTS A Ministry of Social Development report states that in the year ending June 2025, 14.3% of children lived in households in material hardship. There was no statistically significant change from the year ended June 2024. Māori and Pasifika children are disproportionately impacted – 31.0% of Pasifika children and 25.1% of Tamariki Māori experience material hardship.
A report by the Ministry of Social Development has just been published and it is by any measure, devastating reading: one in seven children, 169,300 – roughly the population of Kirikiriroa (Hamilton) or Tauranga – are living in material hardship, in households earning 50% less than the
