New Zealand
Latest Average Wage
+2.6% · 5 years
$60,896
Country Comparison
New Zealand vs United Kingdom
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
New Zealand
vs
United Kingdom
$60,8962025
Latest Average Wage
United Kingdom +8.9%
(vs New Zealand)
$66,2992025
+2.6%2025
5-Year Wage Change
New Zealand +1.4 pts
(vs United Kingdom)
+1.2%2025
+15.5%2025
10-Year Wage Change
New Zealand +12.2 pts
(vs United Kingdom)
+3.3%2025
81.62024
Overall Price Level
United Kingdom +2.7 index points
(vs New Zealand)
84.32024
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
United Kingdom
Latest Average Wage
+1.2% · 5 years
$66,299
Wage Milestones
New Zealand
10 Years Ago
$52,727 (2015)
Historical Peak
$62,034 (2021)
Latest Wage
$60,896 (2025)
United Kingdom
10 Years Ago
$64,199 (2015)
Historical Peak
$66,480 (2019)
Latest Wage
$66,299 (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)United Kingdom (GBR)
Overall
−2.7 index points
100
81.6vs84.3
Food
+16.9 index points
100
102vs85.1
Clothing
−2.7 index points
100
76.2vs78.9
Housing
+9.6 index points
100
105vs95.4
Health
−26.5 index points
100
45.6vs72.1
Transport
−19.0 index points
100
92vs111
Recreation
+1.4 index points
100
91.6vs90.2
Restaurants & Accommodation
+15.8 index points
100
103vs87.2
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
United Kingdom's latest average wage is $66,299 for 2025, about 8.9% higher than New Zealand's $60,896 for 2025 — computed straight from the two reported values. Per year, that works out to roughly $5,403 on the shared purchasing-power basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
The latest one-year changes are effectively identical: +0.7% for New Zealand and +0.7% for United Kingdom. Over five years the picture separates again — +2.6% against +1.2% — so the match is a short-term one. Neither figure is a projection; both come from the reported series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Health shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 45.6 for New Zealand against 72.1 for United Kingdom. United Kingdom sits on the higher side of that 26.5-point spread; New Zealand reads 26.5 index points lower on the US=100 scale. The gap is stated in index points, which are not interchangeable with percentages.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Recreation: New Zealand reads 91.6 and United Kingdom 90.2 for 2024, just 1.4 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Clothing at 2.7 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
United Kingdom's latest PPP-adjusted average wage is $66,299 for 2025, moderately higher than New Zealand's $60,896 for 2025. In relative terms the gap is 8.9% — calculated from the two reported values — equivalent to about $5,403 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 United Kingdom +3.3%, so the two series have been moving in the same long-term direction.
Wage Direction
Both wage series rise over the five-year horizon, though not at the same pace. New Zealand has risen across the reported horizons, with a one-year change of +0.7% and a five-year change of +2.6%. United Kingdom stands just below its historical high of $66,480 in 2019, only 0.3% away, with a ten-year change of +3.3%. New Zealand's five-year change of +2.6% outpaces United Kingdom's +1.2% in magnitude, so the common direction does not mean the two levels are holding a fixed distance. Each percentage is a real, PPP-adjusted change; nominal pay movements are outside what this dataset reports.
Price Profile
New Zealand's overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 81.6, and United Kingdom's reads 84.3, each measured against the United States reference of 100. Neither country is uniformly higher: New Zealand leads in 4 of the 8 comparable categories and United Kingdom in 4, so the profile splits by category rather than by country. Health separates the two most: New Zealand reads 45.6 and United Kingdom 72.1, 26.5 index points apart. The two sit closest in Recreation (91.6 versus 90.2), only 1.4 index points apart. Counted against the US reference of 100, 3 of New Zealand's 8 reported categories sit above the line, against 1 of United Kingdom's 8.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
