New Zealand
In The Cracks Index, New Zealand ranks 27 of 40. 26 countries catch their most vulnerable people more reliably; 13 countries do so less reliably.
38.8
0 best · 100 widest cracks · built from 7 indicators
The change most likely to close the widest crack in New Zealand
Earlier, joined-up housing and care coordination is the lever most associated with improvement here — catching housing loss before it ends on the street.
Linked to the indicator homelessness. This is the index pointing forward: not a judgement, but a lever. The estimated impact is published as a direction, not a promise.
Where New Zealand’s safety net holds, and where it is under strain
Each bar is the indicator normalised to 0–100, direction-corrected so a longer bar always means more cracks. The raw public value and the source year sit beside it.
Problematic debt
weight 19%Share of households with debts they can no longer repay. The first crack most people fall through, and the one that pushes the others open.
Raw value 12 % of householdssource year 2024Under strainestimate
Number of evictions
weight 15%Court-ordered evictions per 10,000 households. A direct measure of how often housing insecurity is allowed to reach its endpoint.
Raw value 12.5 per 10,000 householdssource year 2024Under strainestimate
Mental-health treatment gap
weight 15%Share of people with an identified mental-health care need who receive no care. The distance between needing help and reaching it.
Raw value 12.9 % unmet needsource year 2020Under strainmeasured
Unmet youth care
weight 12%Share of young people referred for care who wait longer than the recommended term or are never helped. A crack measured early in a life.
Raw value 14.5 % unmet needsource year 2024Under strainestimate
Food insecurity
weight 12%Share of the population reporting moderate or severe food insecurity. The point at which a financial shortfall reaches the kitchen table.
Raw value 17.3 % of the populationsource year 2023Wideningmeasured
Severe material deprivation
weight 12%Share of the population unable to afford several basic necessities that most people take for granted. A widely used floor for material insecurity.
Raw value 5.7 % of the populationsource year 2024Holdingestimate
HomelessnessWidest crack
weight 8%Estimated homeless people per 10,000 inhabitants. A modelled estimate at municipality level, as no per-municipality open measurement exists. Homelessness is an unambiguous sign of a torn safety net.
Raw value 219.72 per 10,000 inhabitantssource year 2023Openmeasured
The widest crack in New Zealand is homelessness, which carries the most weight in raising the composite score. That is what the fix above targets.
Cite this figure
Fynqo (2026). The Cracks Index, v1-20260525. Snapshot of 2026-05-25. Licensed under CC-BY-4.0. https://fynqo.app/cracks-index/
Every value on this page is a public country-level aggregate. No personal data is used. The method is fully public.
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