Usman Afzali, PhD (Psyc), MD

Lecturer in Science of Religion

A national longitudinal study of Muslim diversity and flourishing



NZAVS is a nationally representative panel study of New Zealanders that started in 2009. It is currently following 38,551 participants, almost 1% of the New Zealand’s adult population. Over 20% of NZAVS survey items were developed with global virtue experts to specifically investigate the interplay of religion, virtue, and flourishing as people age. Despite strong NZAVS coverage of New Zealand’s population, less than 2% of New Zealand’s Muslims are currently participating in the study (n = 70). The proposed project will build on existing Muslim community partnerships to boost the NZAVS Muslim sample by 2000 participants, thus enabling to explore Muslim flourishing longitudinally on a national level.