When describing demography, disparity, or health need, consideration of scale and administrative borders is critical. Just as the New Zealand Deprivation Index loses significance as the size of the area increases (which is why values cannot be averaged to the TA or DHB level), the same dynamic potentially occurs in other population or health variables. Regional, averaged, figures may be misleading, abstract from their constituent communities where the communities are not uniform.
This geographic supplement to the ARPHS Demographic Profile depicts Auckland as a highly heterogeneous region at the neighbourhood level and, collectively, by sub-TA zones. This effectively reduces the ability for TA or DHB level figures to adequately describe their populations for the purposes of targeted public health work. Manukau City (TA) and Counties Manukau (DHB) in particular have highly divergent populations which can be seen as a bi-modal distribution in some of the figures in the ARPHS Demographic Profile.
The dynamics and determinants of health are likely to vary greatly in such regions. As a result regional health goals and population level monitoring need to take this into account. The figures provided in this geographic supplement are therefore relevant both to community level programme planning and DHB level targets.
Key demographic issues in the Auckland region with respect to public health include a highly dynamic population, divergent trends among ethnic groups, and strongly patterned social inequalities.
Auckland’s population is dynamic on many fronts, 5 yearly residential mobility exceeds 55% in a number of zones. Recent international migration is also high, the proportion of Asian people born in Asia and New Zealand resident less than 5 years is 30% or more for 7 of the 18 Territorial Authority Community Zones. Asian people also see the greatest growth across the region increasing by 54% (83,000) since the 2001 Census and accounting for 40% of total regional growth.
Unsurprisingly regional growth is not evenly distributed, with past and predicted growth largely focused on areas of new development such as CDB apartments, Greenhithe, the Albany Basin, and the Botany-Flat Bush areas. Past ethnic growth shows striking differences, Pacific have continued the move out of Auckland City, increasing most strongly in west Manukau. Māori while also moving out of Auckland City, show a decline in numbers around central Manukau with growth occurring around the southern border of Manukau and Papakura.
The age pyramids demonstrate large differences by both zone and ethnic group. Rural areas tend to have older populations overall and are constricted in the 20-35 year age groups. Asian show irregular and spiked distributions across a number of regions as result of migration patterns, particularly in the 20-24 age group. Both Māori and Pacific populations show markedly young pyramids across the region, particularly in Manukau West where around 25% of the population is under 10 years.
Among social indicators such as qualifications obtained, smoking rates, single parent families, and household crowding, there is clear clustering particularly in western and southern Manukau City, and Papakura District. These are also areas of high numbers of Māori and Pacific people and the New Zealand Deprivation Index ethnic cartograms strongly support this pattern. The experience of Pacific people in particular is commonly that of habitation in the region’s most deprived neighbourhoods.
The dynamic, and diverse (both socially and geographically) nature of the region poses multiple issues for the planning and monitoring of services public health services. At the community level, resident mobility is such that a large number of households are likely to change over the course of a campaign. Similarly any targeting of Māori and Pacific populations will have to be responsive to ongoing regional migration.
While the population is becoming increasingly diverse and multicultural, there may also be issues of increasingly insular areas as migration appear socially and ethnically mediated or patterned. At the regional level the effect of rapidly changing ethnic composition, concentrated population growth, and community heterogeneity will make target setting and monitoring a complex affair.
