NZ General Social Survey 2008

The NZGSS is made up of two questionnaires: the household questionnaire and the personal questionnaire. One individual in the household completes the household questionnaire, which collects information about all the residents in the household (eg family relationships and household income). If you are interested in finding out more about the household questionnaire, please refer to the New Zealand General Social Survey Data Dictionary on the Statistics New Zealand website: www.stats.govt.nz/nzgss. One individual in the household aged 15 years or over answers the personal questionnaire. That individual is randomly selected from within the eligible members of the household (a computer generated random selection). The personal questionnaire consists of these components:

• paid work
• economic standard of living
• health
• knowledge and skills
• environment
• safety and security
• culture and identity
• housing
• leisure and recreation
• social connectedness
• human rights
• overall life satisfaction. Questions in the economic standard of living module were only asked of those respondents aged 18 years and over.

The data collection period took place over a twelve-month period and was run from April 2008 to March 2009. Interviews were conducted using computer-assisted personal interviews (CAPI) lasting an average of 45 minutes. The NZGSS personal questionnaire was answered by 8,721 individuals. Dwellings were selected at random using a multistage sample design and the NZGSS provides estimates at a national level.

Cross-domain