Migraine 2023/24: New Zealand Health Survey

This page presents information collected from adults aged 15 years and over in the migraine module of the 2023/24 New Zealand Health Survey. This includes symptoms in the 3 months before the survey and lifetime diagnosis. It focuses on symptoms experienced in the 3-month period to provide a point-in-time snapshot of migraine in New Zealand and highlight groups where there is potential to improve health outcomes.

Key findings

• 1 in 7 adults (14.6%) reported migraine symptoms in the last 3 months. This represents 628,000 New Zealand adults having recent migraine symptoms.
• Half of the respondents who had migraine symptoms in the last 3 months reported never being diagnosed with migraine (317,000 out of 628,000).
• Women (19.2%) were twice as likely as men (9.6%) to have migraine symptoms in the last 3 months.
• Younger age groups had the highest rates and older age groups had the lowest rates of migraine symptoms in the last 3 months.
• The percentage of adults with migraine symptoms in the last 3 months varied by ethnic group, ranging from 10.2% in Asian adults to 19.6% in Māori adults.
• One quarter (25.0%) of disabled adults had migraine symptoms in the last 3 months, which was nearly double the rate of non-disabled adults (13.6%).

How to interpret the results

The migraine indicators on this page cover two timeframes: symptoms in the 3 months before the survey and lifetime diagnosis. Descriptions of each indicator are available in the Definitions and references section. Adults with migraine symptoms in the last 3 months are disaggregated into people with a migraine diagnosis (blue on graphs) and people without a migraine diagnosis (pink on graphs). The total height of the bar on each graph represents everyone with migraine symptoms in the last 3 months.

More information on survey methodology, a link to the questionnaire and a downloadable dataset are all available at the end of the page. The full dataset contains further information such as 95% confidence intervals for all indicators, more subgroups, adjusted rate ratios and data on migraine diagnosis that is not covered on this page.    

These results can show differences between groups, however further research would be needed to understand the reasons for those differences. For example, the results do not tell us whether different groups had different reasons for having migraine symptoms without a diagnosis. Some examples of possible reasons include: respondents’ migraine attacks are very infrequent, misdiagnosis or migraine is well managed.

1 in 7 adults had migraine symptoms in the last 3 months

• 1 in 7 adults (14.6%) reported migraine symptoms in the last 3 months on the ID-Migraine test™.* This represents 628,000 New Zealand adults.
• Half of the respondents who had migraine symptoms in the last 3 months reported never being diagnosed with migraine (317,000 out of 628,000).

Women were twice as likely as men to have migraine symptoms

• Women (19.2%) were twice as likely as men (9.6%) to have migraine symptoms in the last 3 months.*
• Women (8.6%) were also more likely than men (5.9%) to have migraine symptoms in the last 3 months without ever being diagnosed with migraine.

Migraine symptoms were more common in young people

• Younger age groups had the highest rates and older age groups had the lowest rates of migraine symptoms in the last 3 months. In the younger age groups, 17.0% of 15-24 year olds and 19.9% of 25-34 year olds had symptoms in the last 3 months.* In contrast, 4.5% of 75+ year olds had symptoms in the last 3 months.
• Younger age groups had the highest rates and older age groups had the lowest rates of migraine symptoms in the last 3 months without a migraine diagnosis. 10.5% of 15-24 year olds and 10.6% of 25-34 year olds had symptoms in the last 3 months without ever been diagnosed, in contrast with 2.0% of 75+ year olds.

Māori adults were more likely to have migraine symptoms

• The percentage of adults with migraine symptoms in the last 3 months varied by ethnic group, ranging from 10.2% in Asian adults to 19.6% in Māori adults.*
• Māori adults (8.9%) and European/Other adults (8.3%) had the highest rates of migraine symptoms in the last 3 months with a diagnosis (in contrast to 3.5% of Asian adults).
• Māori adults (10.5%) and Pacific adults (10.7%) had the highest rates of migraine symptoms in the last 3 months without ever being diagnosed with migraine.

Disabled adults were more likely to have migraine symptoms

• Around one quarter (25.0%) of disabled adults had migraine symptoms in the last 3 months, which was nearly double the rate of non-disabled adults (13.6%).*
• 13.3% of disabled adults had migraine symptoms in the last 3 months with a diagnosis and 11.1% had migraine symptoms in the last 3 months without ever being diagnosed with migraine (compared to 6.5% and 7.0% respectively for non-disabled adults).

*The indicator ‘migraine symptoms in the last 3 months’ may include some people who did not know or did not say whether they had ever been diagnosed with migraine. This means that the indicators ‘migraine symptoms in the last 3 months with a diagnosis’ and ‘migraine symptoms in the last 3 months without a diagnosis’ do not always add up exactly to the percentage of people with migraine symptoms in the last 3 months.

Definitions and references

The module comprised 5 questions on migraine symptoms and diagnosis, including 3 which make up the ID-Migraine test™. The full questionnaire is available in Questionnaires and Content Guide 2023/24. Responses to these questions were used to create 4 indicators.

Where to get more detailed data and methodology information

This downloadable dataset contains aggregated data, 95% confidence intervals for all indicators, more subgroups, adjusted rate ratios and data on migraine diagnosis that is not covered on this page.

Microdata will be made available via the Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure in the next update. The code used to derive the migraine indicators from the raw data is also available to researchers upon request.

Please see the Methodology Report 2023/24 for full details on survey design, sampling and weighting, fieldwork procedures, and confidence intervals.

Please see the Questionnaires and Content Guide 2023/24 for the full questionnaire text.