Differences in educational level reflected in voter preferences

The Green party has the highest proportion of tertiary educated supporters and NZ First has the least according to an analysis by the Election Data Consortium.

The Consortium is made up of polling company Roy Morgan and data analytics company Qrious. It says more than 60 percent of Green supporters are in tertiary education or have completed tertiary education, while only 30 percent of NZ First supporters are in the same category.

This may reflect the Greens younger support base and the trend to longer participation in the formal education system in recent decades.

Both National and Labour’s support base closely mirror the general population’s level of education.

“It’s interesting to see the spread of voting intention set against education level. The increase in tertiary participation in recent years has matched an increase in support for the Green Party, while NZ First’s older support base doesn’t have the same numbers of tertiary-qualified people,” says Qrious spokesman Cyrus Facciano.

Minimum education is defined as being up to and including Year 10. Secondary education is to the end of high school. Tertiary education includes those who are in, or have completed any tertiary education.

Earlier work by Qrious looked at the preferred parties of non-voters, with those aged under 24 making up the largest number of those unlikely to vote, and split-voting by electorate.

Information from those reports can be found here: http://info.scoop.co.nz/NZ_Election_Data_Consortium

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