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MIND & MATTERS

Understanding the hearts and minds of New Zealanders

Insights designed to help you better understand public sentiment, from macro trends to behaviours and attitudes towards key interest areas.

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Q3 2026 Findings

Wellbeing

Most Kiwis continue to feel they are simply getting by.

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Emotions

Stress has emerged as the defining emotion of 2026 so far.

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Main concerns

When asking Kiwis what they’re most concerned about, five key themes stood out.

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Finances

More than four in ten Kiwis now have little or nothing left to save.

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Outlook

Over half expect their circumstances to stay the same, while only 21% anticipate improvement.

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Direction

Nearly two-thirds of Kiwis (64%) believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.

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Download collated versions of our findings as well as our latest special reports focussing on specific topical issues.

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About this tracker

Mind & Matters has been running since 2023 and is an evolution of Perceptive's Covid-19 Tracker.

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Wellbeing

 

Overall wellbeing remains largely unchanged, with most Kiwis continuing to feel they are simply getting by. 

 

 

How Kiwis are feeling differs across demographic groups, with Millennials, Gen Z and women more likely to be struggling. No significant differences were seen by region, suggesting how Kiwis are feeling is relatively consistent across the country.

 

 

 

Generation breakdowns

 

 

 

To learn more about generational spending habits and brand loyalty, read our 'Trends in Consumer Behaviour' report.

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Emotions

 

Despite slight improvements in July and August, Kiwis ended Q3 under pressure, with negative emotions continuing to outweigh positive emotions and the gap widening again in September.

 

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Stress has emerged as the defining emotion of 2026 so far, driving Kiwis’ negative emotional outlook, while optimism and motivation remain well below levels seen at the start of the year.

 

‘Stress’ is particularly prevalent among younger Kiwis and women, with Baby Boomers reporting significantly lower levels.

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As part of Omnicom Intelligence, we’ve launched Signals: a research-led exploration of the attitudes, behaviours, and pressures shaping New Zealand and Australia today. Click below to read the first issue and subscribe.

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Concerns

When asking Kiwis what they’re most concerned about, five key themes stood out:

  1. Cost of living

  2. Economy, employment and job security

  3. Global conflict & geopolitical instability

  4. Healthcare & personal health

  5. Climate change and the environment

 

Cost of living remains Kiwis’ overwhelming concern, but the focus appears to be shifting from Q2’s immediate worries around global conflict and fuel prices towards broader concerns about the economy, employment and ongoing financial security in Q3.

Q2

In Q2, there was a strong sense of an external shock. New Zealanders mostly talked about the Middle East conflict, fuel availability, petrol prices and the impact on inflation and household costs. 
“The bloody war causing all the price increases.” 
“Petrol prices and the effect on inflation and the economy.”

 

Q3

Now looking at Q3, those geopolitical concerns are still clearly present, but the comments feel more domestic. There is more emphasis on unemployment, finding work, redundancy, businesses struggling, wages not keeping up, bills and simply not having enough money to get by. 
“Rising costs everywhere with no salary increases to keep up with these costs of living.”
“Wages staying the same. We literally can’t make anymore cut backs than we have.”

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Finances

 

Financial pressure continues to build; more than four in ten Kiwis now have little or nothing left to save, a significant increase from the start of the year. This pressure is particularly evident among those who reported feeling stressed in the past week, with half (50%) saying they have little or nothing left to save, significantly higher than Kiwis who did not report feeling stressed.

 

Kiwis are divided on their financial future, with almost half concerned about meeting their financial needs over the next five years.

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Outlook

Kiwis’ outlook for the next 12 months remains similar to Q2, with over half (53%) expecting their circumstances to stay the same, while only 21% anticipate improvement.


Although the proportion expecting things to get worse has eased from its April peak (34%) to 26% in September, optimism remains well below levels seen at the start of the year (43% in January), suggesting confidence in the future has yet to recover.

With the next general election approaching, Kiwis are considerably less optimistic about their personal futures than they were at the same point in the 2023 election year.

Just one in five (20%) Kiwis now expect things to improve for themselves or their families over the next 12 months, compared with 41% in Q3 2023. 

Meanwhile, the proportion of those expecting things to get worse has nearly doubled (15% to 27%), highlighting a much more cautious outlook heading into this year's election.

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Direction

Negative sentiment towards the direction of New Zealand remains high, with nearly two-thirds of Kiwis (64%) believing the country is heading in the wrong direction.


While this has eased slightly from the March high of 68%, sentiment has remained relatively stable throughout Q3, with little sign of a sustained improvement in confidence about the country's direction.

 

The latest data from September shows regional differences in perceptions of New Zealand's direction, with Canterbury residents particularly negative, as nearly three-quarters (73%) believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.


In contrast, Aucklanders are more positive, with 42% believing NZ is heading in the right direction, compared with just 27% in Canterbury.  

Negative perceptions of NZ's direction have increased since the last election year, with nearly two-thirds now believing the country is heading in the wrong direction.

The New Zealand healthcare system continues to be the biggest concern, with 66% of Kiwis believing it is heading in the wrong direction, followed by the economy (64%) and leadership and politics (59%).


While perceptions have fluctuated throughout 2026, most areas have remained relatively stable through Q3. However, concerns around AI technologies have increased in recent months, reaching 46% in September, while negative perceptions of equality and human rights have eased to 38%.

 

Kiwis continue to feel most positive about their personal lives (62%), followed by their work or business (58%) and mental health (56%).

 

While perceptions have remained relatively stable throughout Q3, confidence in personal financial situations remains the lowest of the five areas (44%), having declined significantly since the start of 2026 (54% in January). This highlights the ongoing financial pressures facing New Zealanders, despite more positive perceptions of other aspects of their lives.

 

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Download reports

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Suitcase or Staycation? | New Zealanders' summer plans

October - December 2025

In 2024 we asked New Zealanders about their summer plans. In 2025 we revisited the topic to see what has (or hasn’t) changed.

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Click or Clinic? | Healthcare advice in New Zealand

Jul - Sep 2025

In this issue we ask Kiwis about their perceptions and experiences of getting health advice in New Zealand.

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Pipe Dream or Possibility | Home buying intentions in 2025

Apr - Jun 2025

We asked Kiwi first home buyers about their perceptions and experiences of the current market.

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Testing the waters | New Zealand water management perceptions

Jan - Mar 2025

We asked New Zealanders about their perceptions of how their water is managed.

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Jingle bills | Holiday spending and new year resolutions

Nov - Dec 2024

We asked New Zealanders about their summer spending and new year priorities.

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Life's a beach | New Zealander's summer plans

Aug - Oct 2024

We asked New Zealanders what their plans were for summer.

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Rainy days | Financial wellbeing

May - Jul 2024

We asked New Zealanders what they were doing to improve their financial situation.

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End of the road | EV/hybrid road user charges

Feb - Apr 2024

We asked New Zealanders what they thought about the road user charge changes.

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Holiday spending and new year resolutions 2023/24

Nov 2023 - Jan 2024

We asked New Zealanders about their holiday spending and priorities for 2024.

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About this tracker

What is Mind & Matters?

Mind & Matters is designed to help business and leaders better understand public sentiment. From macro trends to behaviours and attitudes towards key interest areas, such as such as cost of living, personal finance, future outlook, wellbeing and more, Mind & Matters is your comprehensive check-in on the state-of-mind of the New Zealand public.

Why we’re running this tracker?

In April 2020, in the midst of a pandemic lockdown, Perceptive and Sapien built the first Covid-19 Tracker to help businesses and leaders better understand the hearts and minds of Kiwis as we experienced this unprecedented event.          
         
Fast forward to 2023 and the world—and New Zealand—continues to experience change on multiple fronts, from rising inflation to the rise of eCommerce and generative AI. With this in mind, Perceptive and Sapien have taken the best of our Covid-19 tracker produce this comprehensive tracker that explores what Kiwis think, feel and believe in relation to some of the most topical and challenging issues of today.

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