The Kiwis Count survey measures the trust and confidence of New Zealanders in the Government and the Public Service.
The information gathered helps government to improve the services it provides. Results are shared with the public and given to agencies to help identify areas where issues may be developing and remedial action might need to be taken. The survey gives the government a valuable insight into New Zealander’s views, trust and confidence in government and its role in society.
Every quarter the Kiwis Count survey asks 1,000 people about their trust and confidence in government and public services as well as a range of demographic information that helps Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission understand who we are listening to.
Headline Measures as at December 2020
The graph below shows the scores given for each quarter. The reasons for giving the trust score are collated, analysed and published in July.
There is a gap in the survey results for 2020 due to the Covid -19 lockdown and a number of technical issues that prevented the survey from running. See information here on the changes in the survey over time.
This section presents the findings for the latest annual report – 2019 – which covers the period of January – December 2019. This will be updated in July 2021. The headline measures are:
Overall the 2019 Kiwis Count results show satisfaction with public services and trust of New Zealand’s public sector remains high with an upward trend continuing since Kiwis Count began in 2007 across the public sector brand and service satisfaction. In 2019, 79% of New Zealanders trust public services based on their personal experience. This is 12 percentage points higher than 2007, and one percentage point down on 2018. This one percentage point decrease is neither statistically significant nor considered meaningful with trust based on experience around the high level of 80% for the past few years. Within this number over half of informants have very high trust scoring 5 on a 5-point scale. With little movement over the past year it is difficult to analyse whether there has been any particular shifts as there has not been much change. There is, however, some interesting observations once you analyse through the lens of a subset of public services, customer demographics and usage. The highlights are:
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