32% of Pacific children are going hungry, new MSD data shows
New government data shows Pacific children continue to face some of the highest levels of material hardship in Aotearoa, as unemployment remains double the national rate.
For Pacific families across Aotearoa, the warning signs around poverty and financial hardship have not gone away.
New figures from the Ministry of Social Development's 2026 Child Poverty Report show 31% of Pacific children were living in material hardship in 2025, equivalent to around 54,000 children. While 25% of Maori children and 12% of European children.
That compares with 14 percent of children overall.
The figures add to concerns raised earlier this year that Pacific families are continuing to face disproportionate pressure from the cost of living, housing and employment.
Pacific children remain over-represented in hardship
Pacific children also make up a disproportionate share of children experiencing hardship.
While Pacific children account for around 10 percent of children overall under the prioritised ethnicity measure, they make up 23 percent of children experiencing material hardship.
The numbers show that Pacific families are not simply experiencing lower incomes. For many, that financial pressure is translating into difficulty meeting everyday needs.
The MSD report defines material hardship through whether households are able to afford basic and near-basic necessities and maintain what is considered a minimum acceptable standard of living.
The income gap is still prevalent
The latest report also shows Pacific children are more likely to live in low-income households.
In 2024-25, 28 percent of Pacific children were living below 50 percent of the median household income after housing costs, compared with 20 percent of children overall.
Housing costs are an important part of that picture. MSD notes that high housing costs can leave low-income households with insufficient money for other essentials, including food, clothing, transport, medical care and education.
For Pacific families, that pressure comes alongside an employment picture that remains difficult.
Pacific Unemployment rates highest in aotearoa
Figures released in May showed Pasifika unemployment at 11.9 percent, more than double the national unemployment rate of 5.3 percent.
In Auckland, where a large proportion of Aotearoa's Pacific population lives, the rate was even higher at 13 percent.
Pacific workers were also experiencing high levels of underutilisation, with 20.1 percent considered underutilised, meaning they were not accessing as much work or as many hours as they wanted.
Deputy Labour leader Carmel Sepuloni said the change in the unemployment rate was marginal.
"It's still double what the national average is," she said.
She also pointed to the loss of jobs in construction, an industry where many Pacific workers have historically been employed.
A warning that has been repeated
The latest data follows concerns raised in February by The Salvation Army's State of the Nation 2026 report.
That report found 28.7 percent of Pacific children were living in material hardship, equivalent to around 46,200 children, while 44 percent were experiencing food insecurity.
It also found Pacific people had the highest unemployment rate of any ethnic group.
The figures were described at the time as evidence that Pacific families were being disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
Since then, unemployment has remained high and the latest MSD data continues to show Pacific children experiencing significantly higher levels of material hardship than children overall.
What does hardship actually look like?
The MSD report makes clear that material hardship is more than a statistic.
Across households experiencing hardship, families report cutting back on essentials, going without things they need, delaying healthcare and struggling to meet unexpected costs.
For children living in material hardship, the report found that 50 percent of households reported they did not have enough income for basic needs, while 95 percent reported having either "not enough" or "only just enough" income.
That can mean choosing between groceries and bills, delaying a doctor's or dentist's visit, putting off replacing broken appliances or relying on family, friends or community support to get through.
And for Pacific families, those pressures can extend beyond the immediate household.
The strength of Pacific communities has long included collective support, with families sharing resources and helping one another through difficult times.
But the latest figures raise questions about how much pressure families and communities can continue to absorb.
The numbers are changing, but the pressure remains
The MSD report does show that Pacific household incomes have increased in real terms over the longer term.
Median after-housing-cost incomes for Pacific children increased by around 30 percent between 2007 and 2025. However, the report also notes that income growth has stalled from around 2022.
At the same time, the latest data shows Pacific children remain significantly more likely to experience material hardship and low income than children overall.
The picture is therefore more complicated than simply asking whether incomes have gone up.
For Pacific families, the question is whether those incomes are enough to cover the rising cost of housing, food, transport and other essentials.
The latest data suggests that for thousands of Pacific children, the answer is still no.
And as Aotearoa moves through an election year, the figures put a spotlight on an issue Pacific families have been talking about for years: economic recovery means little if families are still struggling to make ends meet.