Definition of Youth
New Zealand’s national youth development strategy defines young people as between the ages of 12-24 years.
Marriageable Age
- Opposite Sex
- Same Sex
- Without parental consent
- with parental consent
- Male
- 18
- 16
- 18
Candidacy Age
- Lower House
- 18 Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union Partially elected by other means.
- Upper House
- --
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union
Unicameral.
Criminal Responsibility
(1989)
Situation of Young People
Literacy Rates
- -- Male (15-24) %
- -- Female (15-24) %
- Year: No data.
- Source: UNESCO
Net Enrolment Rate
Secondary School- 96.84%Male %
- 97.09% Female %
- Year: 2012
- Source: UNESCO
Situation of Young People
Tobacco Use
Consumed any smokeless or smoking tobacco product at least once 30 days prior to the survey.- 18.70% Male (13-15) %
- 21.50% Female (13-15) %
- Year: 2010
- Source: WHO
Policy & Legislation
The national youth development strategy vision is for a “country where young people are vibrant and optimistic through being supported and encouraged to take up challenges.” The policy focuses on four goals:
- Ensuring a consistent strengths-based youth development approach.
- Developing skilled people to work with young people.
- Creating opportunities for young people to actively participate and engage.
- Building knowledge on youth development through information and research.
Public Institutions
(ministry, department or office) that is primarily responsible for youth?
Youth and Representation
Budget & Spending
- % of GDP
- % of gov. expenditure
Source: World Bank
Gaps indicate missing data from the original data source. (Accessed August 2013).
Additional Background
The Treaty of Waitangi is significant in defining us as New Zealanders and in setting out our relationships and responsibilities.
The Treaty maintains the protection of Ma ̄ori as both tangata whenua and citizens of New Zealand. By recognising Ma ̄ori rangatiratanga, it supports collective action for Ma ̄ori to organise themselves and relate to other parts of the community.
This is how Ma ̄ori maintain their identity and protect and develop themselves - and is essential for rangatahi (young Ma ̄ori) development. As a mutually benefiting partnership document, the Treaty can help in sharing the strengths between the indigenous (Ma ̄ori) understandings and the many non-indigenous (Tauiwi) people.
The Structured Youth Development Programmes – A Review of Evidence (2009) explores the impact of the national youth development strategy:The evidence reviewed demonstrates that effective youth development programmes can have a positive impact on youth development. As it currently stands, however, the evidence does not appear to live up to the considerable enthusiasm that proponents of the youth development field express for it. When done well, the impact of youth development programmes appears positive but modest.
Regardless of the challenge involved, there is now enough known about best practice in youth development work to make the application of that knowledge in practice a reasonable expectation. At the same time, it is recognised that a gap does exist between best practice and what is practiced currently by some in New Zealand’s youth development sector. This gap, which in some cases may be quite substantial, will take time and effort to close.