New Zealand
Latest Average Wage
+2.6% · 5 years
$60,896
Country Comparison
New Zealand vs Canada
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
New Zealand
vs
Canada
$60,8962025
Latest Average Wage
Canada +11.5%
(vs New Zealand)
$67,9012025
+2.6%2025
5-Year Wage Change
New Zealand +2.9 pts
(vs Canada)
−0.3%2025
+15.5%2025
10-Year Wage Change
New Zealand +10.5 pts
(vs Canada)
+5.0%2025
81.62024
Overall Price Level
Canada +4.4 index points
(vs New Zealand)
862024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
Canada
Latest Average Wage
−0.3% · 5 years
$67,901
Wage Milestones
New Zealand
10 Years Ago
$52,727 (2015)
Historical Peak
$62,034 (2021)
Latest Wage
$60,896 (2025)
Canada
10 Years Ago
$64,667 (2015)
Historical Peak
$68,434 (2021)
Latest Wage
$67,901 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
New Zealand (NZL)Canada (CAN)
Overall
−4.4 index points
100
81.6vs86
Food
−6.0 index points
100
102vs108
Clothing
−41.8 index points
100
76.2vs118
Housing
+21.9 index points
100
105vs83.1
Health
−16.6 index points
100
45.6vs62.2
Transport
−11.0 index points
100
92vs103
Recreation
−0.4 index points
100
91.6vs92
Restaurants & Accommodation
+5.4 index points
100
103vs97.6
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
Canada's latest average wage is $67,901 for 2025, about 11.5% higher than New Zealand's $60,896 for 2025 — a percentage worked out directly from the two reported figures. Per year, that works out to roughly $7,004 on the shared purchasing-power basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, New Zealand shows the stronger movement at +0.7%, against +0.2% for Canada. The five-year horizon keeps the same ordering: +2.6% against −0.3%. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Clothing shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 76.2 for New Zealand against 118 for Canada. That is a separation of 41.8 index points on the US=100 scale, with Canada on the higher side and New Zealand on the lower one. Index points are not percentages; the two scales answer different questions.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Recreation: New Zealand reads 91.6 and Canada 92 for 2024 — effectively the same relative price level on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Overall at 4.4 index points apart. Two readings this close mean the category sits at nearly the same point of the US=100 scale for both.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
Canada's latest PPP-adjusted average wage is $67,901 for 2025, moderately higher than New Zealand's $60,896 for 2025. In relative terms the gap is 11.5% — calculated from the two reported values — equivalent to about $7,004 a year on the same purchasing-power basis. No extra conversion is needed here: each figure is already a purchasing-power-adjusted annual amount in constant prices. For scale, neither series has moved by that much within any single reported year, so the gap is structural rather than the product of one unusual observation. Over ten years New Zealand recorded +15.5% and Canada +5.0%, so the two series have been moving in the same long-term direction.
Wage Direction
No single shared direction describes this pairing; each side follows its own recent path. New Zealand has risen across the reported horizons, with a one-year change of +0.7% and a five-year change of +2.6%. Canada stands just below its historical high of $68,434 in 2021, only 0.8% away, with a ten-year change of +5.0%. With the five-year changes at +2.6% for New Zealand and −0.3% for Canada, the horizons are clearer when read side by side rather than folded into one trend statement. All changes here are measured in real, PPP-adjusted terms, so they describe purchasing-power movement rather than nominal pay increases.
Price Profile
New Zealand's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 81.6, and Canada's reads 86, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: New Zealand leads in 2 of the 8 comparable categories and Canada in 5, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. The widest separation is in Clothing: 76.2 for New Zealand against 118 for Canada, a gap of 41.8 index points. At the other end, Recreation brings the two closest — 91.6 versus 92, a gap of just 0.4 index points. Relative to the US benchmark, New Zealand reads above 100 in 3 of its 8 reported categories, and Canada in 3 of its 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
