Statistics on women’s mental health and wellbeing

Psychological distress 

15.52% of women (aged 15+ years) surveyed in the Ministry of Health Manatū Hauora’s 2023/24 New Zealand Health Survey reported high or very high levels psychological distress in the four weeks prior to the survey, compared to 10.2% of men, and 13% of the general adult population. There has been a statistically significant upward trend in high or very high levels of psychological distress among women since 2011/12, when 5.4% of women reported high or very high levels of psychological distress.³  

Māori women, younger adults, disabled people and those living in socioeconomically deprived areas are most affected by psychological distress.⁴ ,⁵

Mental health service access 

In 2023/24, a total of 176,390 clients accessed mental health and addiction services. Of these, 88,698 (50.3%) were male, and 87,692 (49.7%) were female.⁶ Trends are shown on the Service use web tool, under Key findings. 

Unmet need for mental health services 

Figures on unmet need for mental health services show 12.1% of women (aged 15+ years) surveyed in 2023/24 experienced an unmet need for mental health and addiction services in the previous 12 months (up from 9% in 2022/23), compared to 8.9% of men (up from 5.3%).⁷  

Maternal mental health  

Figures on maternal mental health show that 16.5% of pregnant women experience significant ante- or postnatal depression.⁸

60% of women who died by suicide in pregnancy or within six weeks of pregnancy between 2006 and 2017 were Māori.⁹

Hazardous drinking 

Alcohol and substance use can have negative impacts on wellbeing. The 2023/24 New Zealand Health Survey reports that 11.2% of women have hazardous drinking patterns, compared with 22.2% of men and 16.6% of the general adult population. 21.4% of Māori women are hazardous drinkers, as compared with 38.4% of Māori men. 9.1% of Pasifika women are hazardous drinkers, as compared with 22.9% of Pasifika men.¹⁰

The wellbeing figures below are from the 2023/24 annual result in Ministry of Health’s New Zealand Health Survey¹¹ and from Statistics New Zealand’s 2021 General Social Survey.¹²  

Life satisfaction and overall wellbeing

In the 2023/24 Health Survey, 82.8% of adult women report high or very high life satisfaction, compared with 83.6% of men and 83.0 of the general adult population. 3.4% of women report low life satisfaction, compared with 3.0% of men and 3.2% of the general adult population. 

Similarly, in the 2021 General Social Survey, 81% of people in New Zealand, aged 15 years and over, rated their overall life satisfaction at 7 or above on a 0 to 10 scale (where 0 is low and 10 is high). This is unchanged from 2018.¹³ The rating breakdown for gender was 80.5% for women and 81.7% for men. And an estimated 33.4% of women report poor overall mental wellbeing compared to 22.8% men. 

Whānau wellbeing

81.3% of adult women report high or very high family wellbeing, compared with 83.2% of men and 82.0% of the general adult population. 3.5% of adult women report low family wellbeing, compared with 2.5% of men and 3.0% of the general adult population. 

Happiness 

In the 2021 General Social Survey, an estimated 76.5% of women over the age of 15 felt happy the day before the survey was undertaken. This is slightly less than the 79.2% for men. 

In another view of the same survey, an estimated 58.3% women felt cheerful and in good spirits all or most of the time in the two weeks prior to the survey, compared to 60.8% of men. 

Finances 

An estimated 10% of women report they do not have enough money to meet their everyday needs, compared with 7.5% of men. 

Two sets of suicide figures are presented here – unconfirmed suspected suicides, which are more recent, and confirmed figures which have been through the Coronial process. The Ministry of Health’s figures in 2023/24 ¹⁴ show that:

• There were 172 female suspected self-inflicted deaths, in comparison to 445 male. The rate of suspected self-inflicted deaths for females was 6.4 per 100,000 females, which was not a statistically significant change from the average of the last 14 financial years.
• The rate of confirmed suicide deaths for females in 2019/20 was 6.2 per 100,000 females, compared to 17.1 per 100,000 males. This is up from 5.1 suicide deaths per 100,000 females in 2009. In 2019/20, the age standardised rate of confirmed suicides for females was a statistically significant change from the average of the last 9 years. Rates for female confirmed suicides tend to be very low, so a very small change in the rate of a particular year can result a statistically significant change. This does not mean that the overall trend is changing.
• The suspected suicide rate for Māori females was 8.1 per 100,000 Māori female population. This was about 1.5 times that of non-Māori females, who had a rate of 5.5 per 100,000 non-Māori female population. 

Rates of self-harm have been rising and are worse for women than men.¹⁵ One source of information showing this trend is the New Zealand Injury Query System, which contains data for hospital discharges for various injury types including self-harm, up to 2018. The table below shows figures for the NZ public hospital injury discharges between 2013 and 2023 for all external causes, self-inflicted intent, all genders, all age groups and all NZ.¹⁶ Discharges for females are more than double those for males. 

The Ministry of Health’s Women’s Health Strategy discusses what women need to live and age well, and the following excerpt captures the essence: 

“Determinants that affect women’s ability to live and age well include access to good nutrition, use of alcohol and other drugs, access to a warm, dry home, and exposure to family violence and sexual violence, including elder abuse. Access to healthy environments, including connection to communities and safe relationships are important at every stage of life to reduce the risk of issues like isolation and gendered violence. Wāhine Māori told us that wai ora and connection to taiao | the natural environment is essential for pae ora for them and their whānau.”¹⁸

There is a range of barriers faced by women when accessing health and mental health support. The Women’s Health Strategy identifies many of them. Practical barriers include cost, transport, wait times, gaps in service availability, language or access to childcare. Less tangible barriers include stigma, bias, discrimination and cultural factors such as a lack of culturally appropriate services.¹⁹

For more information, contact research@mentalhealth.org.nz    

Compiled by: Siobhan Kemp, Helena Westwick

Reviewed by: Kaitlin Henderson, Former Centre Manager at Auckland Women's Centre. 

Edited by: Caryn Yachinta 

Updated: August 2025 

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