Health status indicators > Life expectancy

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Health status indicators > Life expectancy

Figure 4: Life expectancy at birth, by gender and ethnicity, 1951–2001

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Graph: Life expectancy at birth, by gender and ethnicity, 1951–2001

Note: Adjusted life expectancy estimates for Māori 1980-1999 use estimates from the New Zealand Census - Mortality Study graphed at the midpoint of each time period.
Source: Ajwani et al 2003; Statistics New Zealand
Text description: This graph charts trends in life expectancy from 1950 to 2001 for Māori and non-Māori males and females. It also shows adjusted life expectancy estimates for Māori from 1980 to 1999 using estimates from the New Zealand Census Mortality Study. The graph shows that in 2001, life expectancy at birth was 69 years for Māori males and 73 years for Māori females, while life expectancy at birth was 77 years for non-Māori males and 82 years for non-Māori females. Overall, Māori life expectancy at birth was more than eight years less than non-Māori in 2001, for both genders.

In 2001, life expectancy at birth was 69 years for Māori males and 73 years for Māori females, while life expectancy at birth was 77 years for non-Māori males and 82 years for non-Māori females. Overall, Māori life expectancy at birth was more than eight years less than non-Māori in 2001, for both genders.

During the 1980s and early 1990s Māori mortality was seriously undercounted due to different ethnicity data recording on death registration forms compared with the Census.

The broken lines for Māori males and females represent adjusted life expectancy from the New Zealand Census Mortality Study. This adjusted life expectancy takes into account the undercounting of Māori deaths, thereby providing more reliable life expectancy estimates over this period (Decades of Disparity: Ethnic mortality trends in New Zealand 1980 - 1999, Ajwani et al 2003 ).

Most notably, the figure shows that Māori life expectancy rapidly increased up until the late 1970s or early 1980s, however since then Māori life expectancy has been (mostly) static while non-Māori life expectancy continued to increase.

Reference
Ajwani S, Blakely T, Robson B, et al. 2003. Decades of Disparity: Ethnic mortality trends in New Zealand 1920-1999. Wellington: Ministry of Health and University of Otago.

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