Youth Parliament more representative than Parliament?
I was interested in how the demographics of the Youth Parliament (selected by MPs) compares to the demographics of Parliament itself (elected and selected by parties). The comparison is:
| Youth MPs | MPs | NZ | |
| Female | 50% | 46% | 50% |
| Male | 46% | 53% | 49% |
| Other | 3% | 1% | 1% |
| European | 56% | 61% | 68% |
| Maori | 24% | 24% | 18% |
| Pacific | 12% | 7% | 9% |
| Asian | 19% | 10% | 17% |
| Other | 5% | 1% | 2% |
So in terms of gender, closer to the NZ population for women.
In terms of ethnicity, Parliament has far fewer Asian MPs than the general population, but in Youth Parliament they are slightly over-represented. Likewise for Pacific.