Disabled people and people in disabled households overrepresented in lower income groups

On 26 February 2026, Stats NZ released Household income and housing costs statistics for the year ended June 2025.

This is the first time statistics were derived from the Household Income and Living Survey (HILS), which replaced the Household Economic Survey (HES) from the 2024/2025 year onwards. We’ve summarised the data for disabled people.

Household income and housing-costs statistics: year ended June 2025 - Stats NZ external URL

Disabled people were disproportionately found in lower income groups

The release includes data on household income, expenditure on housing costs, and household material standard of living. Income measures are defined as:

• household equivalised disposable income is defined as household disposable income adjusted for the size and composition of the household  
• the median equivalised disposable household income is the midpoint income level.

Data for the year ended June 2025 showed that:

• disabled people had lower median household equivalised disposable income than non-disabled people ($44,262 compared with $57,346)
• nearly 1 third of disabled people (30.9%) lived in households with a median equivalised disposable income in the lowest income quintile (bottom 20%), compared with 18.2% of non-disabled people
• disabled people were half as likely to live in a household with an equivalised disposable income in the highest income quintile (12.5% compared with 21.6%)
• 14.4% of the population in New Zealand were identified as disabled in the HILS survey, but they represented 22.1% of people in households with equivalised disposable income in the bottom income quintile.

Median household equivalised disposable income was lower for disabled households

The release also includes data on disabled households (households where at least 1 person is disabled). The data showed that:

• median household equivalised disposable income was lower for disabled households than non-disabled households ($48,552 compared with $58,841)
• disabled households were less likely to sit within the highest income quintile than non-disabled households (13.8% and 22.9%, respectively)
• 1 quarter (25%) of disabled households had an equivalised disposable income in the lowest income quintile (bottom 20%) and made up nearly 40% of all households in the lowest income quintile. 

Lower income is associated with lower household standard of living

Because households in lower income quintiles tend to have a lower standard of living, and many disabled people are in these quintiles, disabled people and disabled households are more likely to experience lower standards of living.

For example:

• all households in the bottom income quintile (disabled and non-disabled) were 3.1 times as likely to have a major issue with mould compared to households in the top income quintile
• of all households which received help from a food bank at least once in the last 12 months, nearly 80% were those where median household equivalised disposable income was in the bottom 2 income quintiles (lowermost 40%).

Overall life satisfaction had a strong relationship with income. Nearly a third (31.2%) of households with a lower overall life satisfaction (a score of 0 to 6 out of 10) were in the bottom income quintile.

About the data

As part of the transition from the Household Economic Survey (HES) to the Household Income and Living Survey (HILS), changes were made to:

• the collection of material wellbeing data
• the measurement of material hardship
• the questions used to derive disability status.

For more information about these changes, read About the transition from the Household Economic Survey to the Household Income and Living Survey - Stats NZ external URL

The HILS uses the Washington Group Enhanced Short Set (WGSS Enhanced) of questions to identify disabled adults, and questions based on the Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Module (CFM) to identify disabled children:

• People aged 15 or over are disabled if they have serious difficulty with at least 1 of the following:
  • seeing (even with glasses or contact lenses)
  • hearing (even with hearing aids)
  • walking (without the use of equipment or assistance)
  • manual dexterity
  • upper body strength
  • personal care such as washing and dressing
  • communicating
  • remembering or concentrating (due to a long‑term condition or health problem)
  • anxiety
  • depression.
• Children aged 5 to 14 are disabled if they have serious difficulty with at least 1 of the following:
  • seeing (even with glasses or contact lenses)
  • hearing (even with hearing aids)
  • walking (without the use of equipment or assistance)
  • personal care such as feeding or dressing themselves
  • communicating
  • learning
  • remembering
  • concentrating
  • accepting change
  • controlling their own behaviour
  • making friends
  • anxiety
  • depression.
• Children aged 2 to 4 are disabled if they have serious difficulty with at least 1 of the following:
  • seeing (even with glasses)
  • hearing (even with hearing aids)
  • walking (without the use of equipment or assistance)
  • manual dexterity
  • communicating
  • learning
  • playing
  • controlling their own behaviour.
• Children under 2 years old are not assessed for disability.

Washington Group Enhanced Short Set (WGSS Enhanced) external URL

Washington Group/UNICEF Child Functioning Module (CFM) external URL