Client Contact: Alison Reid
ACNielsen Contact: Julie MacKenzie
Date: 30 June 2003
Ref No: 1002510

ACNielsen certifies that the information contained in this report has been compiled in accordance with sound market research methods and principles, as well as proprietary methodologies developed by, or for, ACNielsen. ACNielsen believes that this report represents a fair, accurate and comprehensive analysis of the information collected, with all sampled information subject to normal statistical variance.

Ensuring quality of life amongst its residents is a critical part of any Council’s role. In 2002 the
Councils of New Zealand’s eight largest cities collaborated to conduct the Quality of Life Project.
The aim of the project was to develop a series of key indicators (social, economic and environmental), to measure the quality of life in large urban areas. The Quality of Life Project will identify issues facing urban communities with the objective of working with central government, community organisations, businesses and citizens to improve the lives of residents.
Part of the Quality of Life project was to survey residents to measure their perceptions of life in large cities. This report presents the results of the New Zealand’s Eight Largest Cities survey of residents.
The survey measured resident perceptions of living in large urban areas including:

• ratings of quality of life;
• health and lifestyle;
• community cohesion;
• safety;
• urban environment;
• democracy;
• information technology.

Method
Interviewing was conducted by telephone using Computer Aided Telephone Interviewing (CATI). The questionnaire was formatted on computer prior to interviewing. Interviewers keyed responses to the survey directly into PCs as they conducted the telephone interview.

Sample
Four thousand residents of New Zealand’s eight largest cities participated in the survey. All participants were aged 18 or over.

Quotas
In order to ensure the final sample was representative of the population of New Zealand’s eight largest cities, quotas were placed on ward, gender, age and ethnicity. This method ensured ‘hard to find’ sub-groups were represented in the survey data. The quotas used were based on the 2001 Census.

Base Sizes
Sample sizes of demographic or geographic sub-groups less than 20 have not been reported on within this document. Where key sub-groups have sample sizes of between 20 and 30, the results have been reported. However these results must be treated as indicative only.

Sampling
Residents were selected from two sample sources:

• the White Pages ,
• and ACNielsen’s Access Panel.

The White Pages were used to produce a sample of phone numbers within each city. Households were randomly selected from this pool of phone numbers.

In order to achieve interviews with ethnic respondents in a cost effective way, ACNielsen’s Access Panel was used. ACNielsen’s Access Panel is a database of 75,000 people who have previously participated in ACNielsen research and have agreed to participate in future research. This database includes details on ethnicity and so provides an ideal alternative source of sample.

The majority of the survey was conducted using the White Pages sample.

Margins of Error
The table below shows the margin of error at the 95% confidence level, for a sample size of 500.

Only differences significant at the 95% level have been identified within the text of this report.

Base sizes
Some base sizes were too small to report on. It should also be noted that where there are small base sizes in the report, these results can be used as an indication only.

Interviewing
Interviews took place between 23rd September 2002 and 20th October 2002 and were carried out between 5pm and 9pm Monday to Friday and between 10am and 8pm in the weekends. The average interview length was 23 minutes.

Respondents were given the opportunity to make appointments.

All interviews were carried out by fully trained interviewers. Interviewers worked under full-time supervision and the shift supervisor was equipped with both visual and audio monitoring facilities ensure the highest possible standard of interviewing. In accordance with standard practice, 10% of each interviewer’s work was validated via the supervisor monitoring system.

Weighting
While quotas were used to ensure that all groups were represented, the actual number of interviews achieved did not exactly match the population. Weighting is a method used on completion of interviewing to ensure that the final sample is representative of the population. Using this method, the views of groups of people who are under-represented in the data are given slightly more weight in relation to their proportion in the population, while people who are over-represented are given slightly less weight.

The Quality of Life data has been weighted in two stages:

Household Size: To correct the over-sampling of residents in small households (residents in large households have less chance of participating in the study as we select only one person per household) a weighting based on the number of residents aged 18+ in each household was applied.

Ward, Age, Gender and Ethnicity: Within city, each city’s residents have been weighted on ward, age, gender and ethnicity using the 2001 Census.

Ethnicity
The weighting for ethnicity has been derived using a priority rating consistent with the 2001 Census. However, the ethnicity groupings in this report are based on the ethnicity with which respondents most identify (not prioritized ethnicities).

Quality of Life Project
The survey was simultaneously conducted with North Shore City, Waitakere City, Auckland City, Manukau City, Hamilton City, Wellington City, Christchurch City and Dunedin City. The results for all eight cities combined are also presented in this report.