More than half of New Zealanders (55%) feel we are not doing enough to meet the country‘s infrastructure needs despite most (76%) agreeing that investing in infrastructure is vital to New Zealand‘s future economic growth.

The Ipsos Global Advisor Study regularly asks respondents from around the world, including New Zealand, for their views on different topics.

It recently conducted a study involving 29 countries that explored the perceptions of the current infrastructure. In New Zealand, 561 people aged 18 to 74 participated. It found that after housing, New Zealanders want transport-related infrastructure such as road and rail networks to be prioritised.

Key findings include:

• Less than half of New Zealanders (46%) are satisfied with New Zealand‘s national infrastructure.

• The majority (89%) are satisfied with the current quality of our airports, well above the global average of 67%.

• Only 29% of New Zealanders are satisfied with the new housing supply, below the global average of 43% and Australia at 52%.

• Just 28% are satisfied with solar energy infrastructure, behind the Australian result of 40%, but not dissimilar to the global average of 33%.

• Of all infrastructure types, New Zealanders are most likely to want new housing supply to be the government‘s top priority (55%), followed by major and local road networks (46% and 41%, respectively).

• Concerns around rising sea levels have increased over time, as 44% of New Zealanders believe that we are poorly equipped in terms of our defences against rising sea levels.

The study found that the majority of countries agree that investing in infrastructure is important, and perceptions are similar across New Zealand (76%) and Australia (77%).

New Zealander‘s satisfaction with national infrastructure (46%) is very similar to that of Australia (47%) but above the global average of 37%. Our satisfaction levels were relatively high compared with the larger Western economies of Canada (39%), the United States (37%) and Great Britain (36%).

New Zealanders living outside the three main urban centres are less likely to feel that their local areas receive enough investment in infrastructure – just 19% agree their area gets enough compared with 27% of those in the bigger cities.

Though New Zealand appears amongst the top three countries in terms of satisfaction with the electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the current satisfaction levels indicate that globally much work is required in this area.