Thumbs up for Wellington where the people are young, smart, healthy and green
Having recently begun .id’s first overseas foray, Johnny, Lailani and I went to Wellington to launch the first New Zealand profile.id site for the City of Wellington. The Mayor Celia Wade-Brown made an eloquent presentation, backed up by some great press from the local paper.
“The profile enables us to have the mazimum confidence in the decisions we make, to manage our assets to meet changing demands of changing populations and allocate resources where they are most needed.”
At these events it is always ideal to find a good news story from the socio-economic data which, as it turns out, was a pretty easy task for the City of Wellington.
Young
I always look at the age structure first, which typically reveals quite a bit about the role and function of a place within the context of the region (or in this case, the nation). It reveals that Wellington attracts young adults in their student and subsequent years – reflecting the role of Wellington as the capital of NZ with the career opportunities that offers.
Smart
It also reveals the importance of Wellington as a centre for education. Wellingtonians are very well educated as the qualifications chart confirms.
Healthy and green
I then looked at how people travel to work in Wellington. In Australian cities this is increasingly becoming a nightmare, stressing workers out before they even get to work! Have a look at Wellington’s journey to work data. Not only was catching public transport and walking to work way above the national average …
… but when you look at how that changed over the 5 years from 2001-2006, walking and public transport were overwhelmingly the fastest growing methods by which Wellingtonians get to work.
Combine this statistical evidence with my experience of visiting Wellington a few times over the past months and I can’t help but conclude that it is a great place to live:
- great topography, providing nice views for many households (and lots of exercise if you walk around);
- a vibrant city centre with good strong espresso coffee, restaurants, bars (and a cool local music scene); and
- to top all that off – as the data reveals – I can only conclude that Wellingtonians are young, smart, healthy and green.
.id is a team of demographers, population forecasters, spatial planners, urban economists, and data experts who use a unique combination of online tools and consulting to help governments and organisations understand their local areas. Access our free demographic resources here
Ivan - The Founder
Ivan is interested in how communities have access to education, housing, health, employment, recreation and each other. People in public and private organisations can be frustrated in their ability to contribute to this “good society” when they don’t have the right information to make critical decisions. Ivan’s idea is to introduce spatial thinking to organisations, look at places through a demographic lens, and use the power of storytelling to be persuasive. Today over 40 smart people have joined him in this mission. Each year over 1.5 million people use id’s 500+ web applications to inform their decision-making. Over 10,000 people subscribe to .id’s newsletter and over 50,000 learn from .id’s blog every month. Today over 30 smart people have joined him in this mission. Each year over 1.5 million people use id’s 500+ web applications to inform their decision-making. 10,000 people subscribe to .id’s newsletter and over 30,000 learn from .id’s blog every month. Ivan loves surfing, his family and the dog.
