Every February for the past 19 years, The Salvation Army’s Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit has released a State of the Nation report painting an independent picture of the wellbeing of the most vulnerable in our community. It provides a deep dive into a comprehensive set of indicators – not focused on GDP and house prices, but on how our country is performing in areas of social wellbeing. 

The report focuses on five key areas: Children & Youth; Work & Incomes; Housing; Crime & Punishment and Social Hazards (things such as gambling harm, substance use/abuse and problem debt). It also drills down the data to look specifically at Māori wellbeing across all the indicators.

And what is the overall picture? 2025 wasn’t a great year for improved social outcomes. Of the 25 indicators, an analysis of the data suggests things have got worse on 12 indicators, there’s been no change on 7, and some improvement on 6.  

Take a look for yourself!  How does this analysis compare with what you are seeing in communities?

You can access the report findings in three ways – the Full (102-page) Report, the 12-page Executive Summary or the interactive dashboard for a quick overview of all the data in one place.

The data provides great soundbites of evidence to add to your own stories from work alongside our communities – useful this election year if you are advocating for policy change on issues of importance impacting the people you work with.