National remains the highest-rated party when it comes to tackling the top five concerns on New Zealanders' minds, but Labour has been regaining lost ground, a survey shows.

The Ipsos NZ Issues Monitor found most of the top five concerns of New Zealanders remained fairly steady, although fuel costs are becoming more of a concern.

The top five issues currently concerning New Zealanders in September 2023 were:

• Inflation / cost of living at 62 percent, steady
• Crime / law & order at 37 percent, up 1 point from last month
• Healthcare / hospitals at 32 percent, up 1 point
• Housing / price of housing 31 percent, down 1 point
• The economy at 24 percent, steady
• Rising to fifth equal, petrol prices / fuel at 24 percent, up 3 percentage points

Most of those five have stayed relatively steady since May, with minor adjustments, with the exception of fuel which rose dramatically from 11 percent in May to 21 percent in August.

Climate change was sixth at 19 percent. Concern about it has decreased steadily since it peaked at 27 percent in February after the cyclone and flooding events, but it remains above the level from before the 2020 election.

However, asked about concerns facing New Zealand over the next five years, climate change was significantly more of a concern at 26 percent, while inflation/cost of living was considered less of a long-term concern at 53 percent compared to the 62 percent immediate concern.

The Greens were considered most capable of tackling climate change, and Labour the most capable of tackling poverty/inequality (which ranked 8th), but National maintained its dominance in taxation and education.

National gained a point in New Zealanders' confidence about its ability to tackle the cost of living, although Labour gained six points - up to 27 percent.

National also gained four points to 38 percent on crime / law and order, while Labour gained two points to 20 percent.

National gained two points to 30 percent on health, while Labour gained three points to 29 percent; National gained one point to 32 percent on housing while Labour was up four points to 24 percent.

On the economy, National remained well ahead - rising two points to 41 percent - but Labour lifted by four points to 26; and National was up one point to 31 percent on fuel costs while Labour rose five points to 23 percent.

New Zealanders' overall rating of the government's performance increased slightly - up to 4.7 out of 10 from the low of 4.5 out of 10 in August, following a steady decline from the high of 7.6 in 2020.

The survey was conducted between 25 September and 2 October with a total of 1000 New Zealanders aged 18 and over, weighted for age, gender and religion, with a credibility interval of +/- 3.5 percentage points.

Multiple responses, "don't know" and "not stated" responses were not included.