Lay summary
Aotearoa/New Zealand has undertaken much less research into the health status of its rural communities than have comparable countries. A barrier to this has been the absence of an agreed definition of 'rural'. An urban-rural classification system for health has recently been developed and is now available in New Zealand. This project will use this classification along with routinely collected Ministry of Health data to review urban-rural differences in health outcomes. In particular, it will examine the interacting impacts of rurality, ethnicity and socioeconomic deprivation on a range health outcomes and use of a range of health services; how people move between urban and rural areas in the later years of life, especially Māori; and the overall per capita cost of providing publicly funded healthcare to rural and the urban areas. The goal is high-quality, efficient and equitable healthcare for rural New Zealanders.