An important role of the WWP has been to provide an overview of the region’s progress towards greater wellbeing. In the past we have tracked this against our original wellbeing targets- for example our 2023 Progress Update, as well as providing more specific data and information on wellbeing in relation to areas such as rangatahi wellbeing, food security, housing, the wellbeing of young woman, and the wellbeing of people in the Hauraki rohe.

Our 2025 State of the Region Report has now been completed following receipt of stakeholder feedback and comments. The report is being constantly updated as further feedback is received and new data is acquired.

In February, we held a webinar to share the key insights from the State of the Region report, and to encourage further feedback and discussion. You can view the webinar recording here. The report follows the same general structure as the draft. The discussion from the webinar and other stakeholder feedback further reinforced the importance of affordability to any discussion of wellbeing in the Waikato. Feedback to the State of the Region report, and discussions around housing affordability, have also highlighted the variations in socio-economic wellbeing that exists within districts across the region.  Some of the key indicators regarding affordability are illustrated in Figure 1.