Assault mortality
Ethnic differences
The assault death rate for young Māori is much higher than that for young non-Māori, though the gap may be closing.
Over the period 2001-2005, the death rate for Māori 15 to 24 was 4.4 per 100,000 population, compared with 1.7 for non-Māori.
The death rate for Māori aged 15 to 24 fell from 4.9 in the period 1996-2000 to 4.4 in 2001-2005. The rate for non-Māori climbed over the same period, from 1.2 in 1996-2000 to 1.7 in 2001-2005.
Assault mortality rate for young people 15 to 24, by Māori ethnicity status, 1996-2005
Source: New Zealand Health Information Service, Ministry of Health.
Note
We encourage you to be cautious about drawing conclusions from comparisons between ethnic groups. Apparent differences (in unadjusted data) between ethnic groups can often be explained by factors other than ethnicity per se, such as the different age, sex, geographical and socioeconomic distributions of different ethnic populations. In addition, datasets vary in the way that they collect and record ethnicity data.
