NZ's top 10 places for families

It's official. Windy Wellington is absolutely, positively the best place in New Zealand to bring up a family.

So says the latest ASB TopSpots report, due out this week, which ranks Queenstown Lakes District as second, Selwyn District third and North Shore City as fourth out of 50 territorial authorities. Auckland City is sixth equal - with Waimakariri district, near Christchurch - pulled down by its higher crime rate.

The report's publisher, Stephen Hart, used "family friendly" criteria to award points to different territories, including house price affordability in relation to income levels, the number of school leavers with qualifications, truancy rates, rates of tertiary education, unemployment, crime rates, household deprivation levels, health statistics, the number of young people living in the area and the number of GPs per 100,000 head of population.

Wellington excelled in the education scores, coming first for school-leavers with NCEA level 1 and above and adult degree graduates, and second for university qualifications.

To read the full NZ Herald story click here

Posted: 6 Jan 2009

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