A new survey has found economic issues are still the most important problems facing New Zealand - but worries about war and terrorism have also shown sharp increases.
A Roy Morgan poll released yesterdayshows 41 percent of respondents ranked some kind of economic issue as their top worry in August, a decrease of 3 percent since May's survey.
Poverty and the gap between rich and poor continues to dominate, with 18 percent saying it is the most important economic issue, followed by the economy on 9 percent, unemployment on 6 percent and the cost of living on 4 percent.
Social issues came in second highest, rising to 24 percent, followed by Government on 19 percent, while the environment slipped slightly to 6 percent.
Thirty five percent of respondents said the biggest problems facing the world are war and terrorism, an increase of 15 percent since May.
Roy Morgan said this category surpassed global economic issues for the first time since it started asking this question in 2010.
A cross-section of 966 men and women aged 14 or over were interviewed by telephone in July and August 2014.
The margin of error for the survey is + or - 3.2%.
