Graphic showing clusters of residential mobility patterns in New 茄子视频app官网(see study for details).
The nationwide geospatial study听鈥 鈥鈥 鈥撎looks at the patterns of how people move, who moves around the most, and where they move.听
Joint first author听Dr Lukas Marek听from the 茄子视频app官网 Geospatial Research Institute鈥檚 GeoHealth Laboratory says it is known that changes of address and related changes in environmental exposures can be very important for people鈥檚 health and wellbeing.听
茄子视频app官网 researcher Dr Lukas Marek
鈥淢oving to a new place can be a stressful event for many people, especially those are forced to move to a new address, as opposed to those who are buying or building a new house, or the people who want to move. And there are a lot of people who move quite a lot even though they don鈥檛 want to,鈥 he says.
The study would be of assistance to policy makers and those looking at public health issues.
鈥淚f you know your population is fluctuating, this information will help decide on appropriate investment in housing development and may also shape how you design other services.鈥
Socio-demographic and socioeconomic factors were incorporated into the study of data from 2016 - 2020, which maps spatial clusters of some of the most and least mobile groups. Transience, or home movement, was measured for every person in New 茄子视频app官网through access to a national research database with individual and household-level microdata.
The study classified New 茄子视频app官网areas into five groups based on shared patterns around their population鈥檚 movements.听
Besides long-term 鈥蝉迟补测别谤蝉鈥听(southeast, excluding central Dunedin, and north of the South Island, outskirts of Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland), the study highlighted three distinct patterns for people moving home:
Vulnerable transient populations were defined as people who moved at least five times within the most deprived areas of New 茄子视频app官网(during the study鈥檚 timeframe), or 10 and more times regardless of the area鈥檚 socioeconomic status.
鈥淔or M膩ori, almost every 10th听person was what we described as a 鈥榲ulnerable transient鈥, compared to every 40th听person for non-M膩ori, meaning you are about four times more likely to be moving homes at least once or twice a year or living only in the most deprived areas if you are M膩ori,鈥 Dr Marek says.
A high percentage of people who are transient and vulnerable were based mostly in urban areas of T膩maki Makaurau (Auckland), Whanganui, as well as around Te Tai Tokerau (Northland) and Tair膩whiti (East Cape).
Europeans and other ethnicities were highly represented in the stayers and mobile non-vulnerable people moving to new housing developments (noticeably south and west of Christchurch, in the Queenstown Lakes District and north of Auckland).
Dr Marek believes it is interesting to see a shift in what community might mean in New Zealand: 鈥淎 lot of our small towns often have really mobile populations.听 What does that mean for a community?鈥
鈥淭he paper does give an idea about which parts of the country has longer-term residents (stayers) and which has more transient populations,鈥 he says.
鈥淔or councils it may mean that if you鈥檙e designing services for stayers but you actually have very transient populations, you need to think about what will work and how you interact with those who reside in your area.听 You may be able to create better conditions for people who actually live in your area now.鈥澨
Background
The Healthy Location Index (HLI) published in 2021 provided information for this 2023 study about 鈥渉ealth-promoting鈥 and 鈥渉ealth-constraining鈥 environments.听 Researchers for the HLI听 compiled 鈥渆nvironmental exposure鈥 data into 10 measures:
For more information on the HLI, visit听
