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.

New Zealand consumer shopping in a store

In the March 2025 issue

Current mood

Positive emotions take the lead. Happy/joyful and relaxed ranked as top two emotions for January and February.

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Future outlook

Nearly half of New Zealanders believe things will remain about the same, followed by those with a positive outlook (38%).

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Direction

Negative sentiment around NZ's direction strongest among women and in the South Island.

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Cost of living and inflation

New Zealanders’ financial situation continues to improve.

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Download reports

Download collated versions of our findings as well as our latest Talking Points focussing on our summer spending and new year resolutions.

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About Mind & Matters

Learn more about Mind & Matters and what drives this research.

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Current mood

Positive emotions take the lead

At the start of 2025, we updated the emotions list to reduce overlap and improve balance. New Zealanders' top three emotions over both January and February were all positive, with happy, relaxed, and optimistic leading the way.

 

  • Happy / Joyful: a newly added emotion, ranked first place in February (56%) and increased by 5pp since January.
  • Relaxed: a newly added emotion, ranked second place in February and increased by 8pp since January.
  • Optimistic: has seen a decline since December (-6pp) and has remained stable this year (44%).
  • Motivated: surprisingly, saw a drop in January (-5pp), and came back up to 42% in February.
  • Stressed: dropped by 5pp in January and came back up to 41% in February.
  • Hopeful: this emotion was removed at the start of this year but ended on a high as nearly half of New Zealanders felt hopeful in December.
  • Frustrated: saw a decrease near the end of last year (-5pp from October to November) but has now increased to 38% in February (+3pp since January).
  • Anxious: saw a notable decrease in November last year (-7pp) and is slowly going back up this year, with 38% of New Zealanders feeling anxious in February.

 

Breakdown by gender

Men’s top emotions have remained positive for the last few months. This year, men have been feeling relaxed, happy, motivated and optimistic. These positive emotions are distantly followed by stress, with a third of men feeling this emotion in February.

Interestingly, motivation and optimism saw a notable decline in January, but it looks like it might have been picked up by joy and relaxation (top two emotions this year so far).

Women’s top emotions tend to be more negative than men’s, with anxiety and frustration being more common for them. In February, women were significantly more likely to feel stressed, frustrated, anxious, and sad than men. Positively though, in February, women mostly felt happy and relaxed (58% and 53% respectively).

 

 

Positive emotion differences

 

  Men Women
Relaxed

53%

53%
Happy / Joyful 53% 58%
Motivated 45% 39%
Optimistic 43% 44%

 

Negative emotion differences

 

  Men Women
Stressed

33% ↓

48% ↑
Frustrated 30% ↓ 46% ↑
Anxious 27% ↓ 49% ↑
Sad 15% ↓ 32% ↑

↑ Significantly higher

↓ Significantly lower

Future outlook

No big shifts in New Zealanders’ outlook for the next year

Nearly half of New Zealanders believe things will remain about the same, followed by those with a positive outlook (38%), which have remained relatively stable for the last few months.

In February, positive sentiment was significantly higher among men, with 45% of them believing things will get better, compared to only 31% of women. Similarly, younger New Zealanders aged under 35 felt significantly more optimistic about the next 12 months as 59% of them believe things will get better, compared to only 20% of older generations (65+ years).

 

Themes behind these outlooks

Taking a deeper look into the reasoning behind the positive outlooks, these were the top themes that emerged:

1. Financial improvements and stability

Many New Zealanders attribute their positive outlook to having a better income, lower interest rates, reduced debt, and better financial planning. 

  • "Paid off mortgage so a little more spare money."
  • "I am expecting a bonus and pay rise."
  • "Savings goals and have reduced debt."

 

2. Career growth and new opportunities

Other New Zealanders express optimism due to career changes, promotions, job security, or new business opportunities.

  • "Due for a promotion."
  • "New mahi on the horizon."
  • "Changes at work which could be opportunities."

3. Personal and family wellbeing

Some New Zealanders are looking forward to improved health and stronger family relationships.

  • "Trying to exercise and eat better, which makes me feel better."
  • "I look forward to my daughter-in-law returning to full health."
  • "A few weeks ago, we welcomed our second son, so over the next year we will become a better family unit."

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Direction

Negative sentiment has increased with the new year

Towards the end of last year, the proportion of New Zealanders who believed the country was headed in the right direction followed an upwards trend, peaking at 46% in December. However, this positive sentiment softened (-3pp) and has remained stable during the new year.

In February, 57% of New Zealanders felt the country was headed in the wrong direction. This negative sentiment was mainly driven by women (66% compared to 47% of men) and those living in the South Island (73% vs. 52% of North Islanders).

 

What's driving wrong direction sentiment?

 

The healthcare system remains the top area that New Zealanders believe is heading in the wrong direction. Although the proportion of people who believe this has been declining since June 2024, it continues to be the main area of concern by far. This negative sentiment is mainly driven by women (75% vs. 58% of men), and those living in a child-free household (74% vs 58% of households with children).

 

Concerns around the country’s crime and punishment and New Zealand’s leadership and politics, and the environment saw a notable increase at the beginning of this year (+6pp, +7pp, and +5pp respectively). However, these have softened in February.

 

What's driving right direction sentiment?

 

New Zealanders’ personal lives continue to be the top area they believe is going in the right direction, mainly being driven by those aged over 55 (83%, vs. 67% and 63% for younger cohorts). Positively, New Zealanders’ beliefs around their financial situation seems to be improving, as this sentiment has increased by 10pp since June last year (61% in February 2025).

 

Interestingly, ‘New Zealand’s relationship with other countries’ has been declining since November 2024 (-11pp).

 

Wellbeing

Wellbeing practices seem to have declined as last year came to an end. Unsurprisingly however, as the New Year’s resolutions came to play, the proportion of those who were actively trying to improve their mental or physical health increased back up in January this year (+14pp), followed by a slight softening in February.

 

The top three emerging ways in which New Zealanders are changing their lifestyle to improve their wellbeing are:

 

1. Physical activity and exercise

 

The most common way in which New Zealanders are doing this is by engaging in exercise, walking, gym workouts, and outdoor activities as a way to improve their wellbeing.

 

  • "I have been able to get to the gym more regularly.”
  • "Walking for at least 20 minutes every day."

2. Healthy eating and lifestyle changes

 

Many others have made changes to their diet, reduced alcohol consumption, and improved sleep habits.

 

  • "Trying to eat more healthy and keep hydrated."
  • "Eating healthier to lose weight."

 

3. Mental wellbeing and self-care

 

New Zealanders are also focusing on activities like meditation, journaling, therapy, and reducing stress.

 

  • "I started trying out journaling and meditation."
  • "Meditation, Reflection, and saving money."

 

Cost of living and inflation

New Zealanders’ financial situation continues to improve

 

Positive shifts were seen in New Zealanders’ financial situation over the past few months, with the proportion of those who were able to cover the essentials but have little/nothing left over to save decreasing by 9pp since November last year. A notable increase was seen in the proportion of those who are living on the returns of their investments (+7pp since November 2024), with 13% of New Zealanders stating this in February 2025.

 

This positive shift also mirrored a decline in the proportion of New Zealanders who are having to cut back on spending due to the cost of living, with this group decreasing by 8pp since November last year.

This positive shift is also seen in the decline of the proportion of New Zealanders who are having to cut back on spending due to the cost of living, with this group decreasing by 8pp since November last year.

 

Household impacts

Key expenditure cuts for New Zealanders

Here are the key spending categories New Zealanders consider essential and are unable to reduce, along with the top categories they would cut back on first for the month of October.

Unable to cut back/essential

  1. Rent – 90%
  2. Council rates – 89%
  3. Mortgage – 86%
  4. Vehicle insurance – 69%
  5. House and/or contents insurance – 69%

Would cut back on first

  1. Alcohol/tobacco/vapes – 72%
  2. Consumer electronics and appliances – 69%
  3. Entertainment, media and streaming – 69%
  4. Clothing and footwear – 68%
  5. Homeware and décor – 67%
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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 job security, personal finance, mental health, the environment 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.