One of Aotearoa’s leading ageing experts is warning the country cannot build a healthy older population while thousands of children are growing up in poverty.
University of Auckland Professor Ngaire Kerse, the Joyce Cook Chair in Ageing Well, says healthy ageing begins at birth, with childhood housing, income, education and access to healthcare helping determine health and wellbeing decades later.
Kerse and researcher Dr Claire Dale point to an estimated 169,300 New Zealand children, or 14.3 percent, living in poverty in 2026, warning persistent disadvantage can accumulate into chronic ill health, social problems and poorer wellbeing over a lifetime.
Research from Growing Up in New Zealand also shows the importance of the first 1,000 days. Stable finances, warm and safe housing and avoiding frequent moves can protect children against chronic conditions including asthma, eczema requiring medication and obesity.
Kerse says ageing well therefore cannot be reduced to telling people to exercise, eat better or make healthier choices later in life. The opportunities people have to make those choices are shaped by their social and economic circumstances from childhood.
The warning comes as Aotearoa’s population gets older. More than 900,000 people were aged 65 or over in 2024 and 2025, while a declining birth rate means the ratio of older people to the working-age population is increasing.
For Māori, the challenge also puts the focus on lifelong health equity — ensuring tamariki and whānau have the housing, income, healthcare, education and community support needed not simply to live longer, but to reach kaumātua years in good health.
The message is simple: investment in healthy ageing cannot begin at 65. It has to begin with our tamariki.
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