The lowdown on the honours system.
The New Zealand honours system has three Orders, the Order of New Zealand (ONZ), the New Zealand Order of Merit and the Queen's Service Order.
The total of 196 recipients in the New Year 2019 Honours List are equally divided between women (99) and men (97).
The sexes are also equally spread in the highest levels of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
But men get the most in the Officer level, 14 out of 23), while women heavily dominate the Member level (52 to 27).
For the first time, a woman receives the New Zealand Antarctic Medal, established in 2006.
However, men dominate the Queen’s Service Medal (41 to 24).
The biggest area of contribution is community, voluntary and local services (87). Arts and media are next (28), overwhelmingly dominated by women (20). Sport and recreation is next (23), followed by education (15), health (12) and services to the state (12).
Business and the economy accounts for 11, with science and technology 8.
The regional breakdown is North Island 141, South Island 52 and International 3.
No appointment has been made to the highest honour, Member of the Order of New Zealand, which is limited to 20 living people. It currently has 19, the most recent being writer Joy Cowley in the New Year 2018 Honours List.
