CivicIQ · Methods
NZ Index methods and non-partisan charter
Phase 0/1 covers Health, Housing, Safety, Affordability and Wellbeing. The public brand is CivicIQ / CivicNZ. The composite is experimental: only official observed points are scored, and interpolated Health, Housing and Safety curves have been removed. There is no debate scoring in this release. The composite index JSON is free; area desks also publish free summaries and US$0.02 x402 paid detail.
Non-partisan charter
- We score against evidence, stated objectives, measurable targets and follow-through. We never score ideology, party or values.
- The same rubric applies to every party, minister and agency.
- All methods, weights, prompts and code are public. Every number links to its source.
- We publish corrections. Model scores are labelled “AI-assessed” and the evidence is quoted.
- No party, union or lobby funding. The funder list is published.
How a number is scored
- Each indicator is a z-score against its own 2015–2024 baseline, then sign-flipped so that up always means better.
- The 0–100 scale is 50 + 10z, clipped. 50 is the baseline average, not a value judgement.
- Domain scores are the equal-weighted mean of their indicators. The NZ Index is the equal-weighted mean of the five domains.
- Indicator trends use the same CivicNZ rule as the desks: official 95% significance and published confidence intervals first, then a like-for-like year-on-year change, then Theil–Sen only when no same-season pair exists and there are four or more official points spanning two years. Labels are Improving, Worsening, Flat or Insufficient. A homemade 0.2-unit / 2% Flat band is not used.
- Where an official target exists, progress is (current − baseline) / (target − baseline).
- Missing values are never imputed or interpolated. A series that is more than 12 months old is marked stale. Components without a real official observation are excluded from the domain mean.
- Every displayed figure carries its agency source, series code, release date and fetch date. Official series are typically Crown copyright, CC BY 4.0 (NZGOAL).
Published weights
Health 1, Housing 1, Safety 1, Affordability 1, Wellbeing 1. Readers can re-weight in the browser. CivicIQ does not treat those personal sliders as the published index.
The twenty specified indicators
| Domain | Indicator | Source | Series | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health | ED stays within 6 hours | Health NZ / Te Whatu Ora | HEALTH-ED-6HR | Scored |
| Health | First specialist assessment within 4 months | Health NZ / Te Whatu Ora | HEALTH-FSA-4M | Scored |
| Health | Elective treatment within 4 months | Health NZ / Ministry of Health | HEALTH-EL-12M | Scored |
| Health | Immunisation at 24 months | Health NZ / Ministry of Health | HEALTH-IMM-24M | Scored |
| Housing | Public housing register | Ministry of Social Development | MSD-HR-TOTAL | Scored |
| Housing | Emergency housing households | Ministry of Social Development | MSD-EH-HH | Scored |
| Housing | Median rent to median income | MBIE Tenancy Services / Stats NZ | MBIE-RENT-INC | Excluded — no official compiled series |
| Housing | New dwellings consented per 1,000 people | Stats NZ ADE | STATSNZ-BLD-CONS | Excluded — no official compiled series |
| Safety | Recorded victimisations per 1,000 people | NZ Police | POLICE-VIC-1000 | Excluded — no official compiled series |
| Safety | NZCVS crime prevalence | Ministry of Justice | MOJ-NZCVS-PREV | Excluded — survey began 2018; no pre-survey points |
| Safety | Violent victimisations per 1,000 people | NZ Police | POLICE-VIO-1000 | Excluded — no official compiled series |
| Safety | Youth proceeded against per 10,000 aged 10–17 | Ministry of Justice | MOJ-YOUTH-10K | Excluded — no official compiled series |
| Affordability | Median house / median HEDI | Stats NZ Housing in Aotearoa 2025 | STATSNZ-HIA-HEDI | Scored |
| Affordability | Renters spending 30%+ on housing | HUD system indicators / Stats NZ HES | HUD-HES-RENT30 | Scored |
| Affordability | HLPI minus LCI | Stats NZ HLPI and Labour Cost Index | STATSNZ-HLPI-LCI | Excluded — June 2026 point is after the 2015–2024 baseline |
| Affordability | Housing costs per $100 disposable income | Stats NZ Household Economic Survey | STATSNZ-HES-HC100 | Scored |
| Wellbeing | Overall life satisfaction | Stats NZ General Social Survey | STATSNZ-GSS-LS | Scored |
| Wellbeing | Lonely most or all of the time | Stats NZ General Social Survey | STATSNZ-GSS-LONE | Scored |
| Wellbeing | Trust in parliament | Stats NZ General Social Survey | STATSNZ-GSS-TRUST-PARL | Scored |
| Wellbeing | Life worthwhile | Stats NZ General Social Survey / Ngā Tūtohu Aotearoa | STATSNZ-GSS-PURPOSE | Scored |
Ingest starts from compiled official-style fixtures so the page is reviewable offline. Live agency CSVs replace a series when the official file responds.
What this release does not do
- No Hansard, question or speech scoring.
- No Attention Gap scatter and no OIA drafts.
- No Education, Economy, Environment or Fiscal domains yet.
- No paid endpoint for the composite /index score or the area desks.
- REINZ and CoreLogic commercial house-price files are not ingested.