Table 2 Characteristics of SHOW Study participants (applicant and tenant households at Dec 2011) compared with the New Zealand population (2006 census and 2013 census)

 Number of households

4931

64,706

1,454,106

1,570,695

 Number of people

11,196

196,612

4,027,947

4,242,048

 Median duration on waiting list (current applicants)

34 weeks

–

–

 Median duration in tenancy

–

212 weeks

–

  Median age

21

21

36

38

  Female %

55.5

54.8

51.2

51.3

  European %

25.5

27.6

64.7

70.0

  New Zealander %

–

–

10.7

1.6

  Māori %

32.6

38.5

14.0

14.1

  Pacific %

34.0

39.4

6.6

7.0

  Asian %

10.6

4.4

8.8

11.1

  Middle Eastern Latin American %

7.1

3.1

0.9

1.1

  Other %

0.6

0.4

0.04

0.04

  Not Stated %

1.4

1.7

4.3

5.4

  One parent with children %

35.7

35.4

18.1

17.8

  Average weekly household income $

356.9

387.5

1321.6^e

1398.4

  Receipt of income from Gov. benefit %

86.8

95.6

24.5

25.1

  Smoker in household %

–

44.1

32.9

  Proportion of adults who smoke %

–

29.9 (18+ years)

20.7 (15+ years)

15.1 (15+ years)

 Sharing with another family %

41.5

2.8

3.3

 Average number of people in household

4.2

3.2

2.7

2.7

 Average number of bedrooms

2.5

2.6

3.1

3.1

 Average people per bedroom

1.7

1.2

0.9

–

  Household

44.3

22.3

5.1

  Person

52.3

38.0

10.0

  Household

22.2

7.1

1.2

  Person

28.3

14.3

3.5

–