Sovereign has polled New Zealanders and found many are on course to dying ten years or more before their time.

Insurer Sovereign has polled the nation and found that on average people's bad habits have them on track to die two years before their time.

Sovereign's research is part of the development of a scheme to reward policyholders who live healthier lifestyles, thereby lowering the risk of insuring them.

A survey of 1200 people from around the country found the average Kiwi adult's eating, exercise, lack of sleep, and other lifestyle choices added up to and average of two "penalty" years per person, though people with the very worst lifestyles were awarded 20 penalty years.

CAMERON BURNELL/FAIRFAX NZ Dr John Mayhew, shortly after being made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to sports medicine.

Sovereign's chief medical officer, John Mayhew said the average person was "more senior" in health years than they were in actual years of life.

READ MORE: Health confessions from people in our most populous centres

"The research shows that our lifestyle choices can have a significant impact on our health and as a nation we have a bit of work to do – particularly when looking at stress, alcohol consumption and how work pressures are impacting our health," Mayhew said.

"Even a couple of small positive changes can have a powerful impact on our overall health," he said.

Sovereign has added a "Health Age Generator" calculator to its website letting people work out whether their lifestyle threatens to kill them early, and what changes they can make to give them a better chance of adding extra years to their lives.

Mayhew said on average, men were doing better than women, and people's habits improved as they got older.

It also suggested that city-dwellers' habits were by and large healthier than rural dwellers.

One woman bucking those findings is Te Awamutu-based personal trainer Tayla Porter, aged 25.

She has signed up for the Healthy By Sovereign rewards scheme, which is a bit like a credit card rewards scheme, only rewards points are not earned for spending, but for healthy living.

"We are all conscious of what we should be doing, but it is not always put in place in our lives," Porter said.

Her job as a fitness instructor at Focus Physio keeps her fit, but even before that she put a high importance on staying active. During a spell living in wet and windy Wellington, she and a friend worked out an exercise penalty system where if either failed to get out for a shared run, they had to buy dinner for the other.

Porter wass careful to maintain a healthy diet, earning her rewards points each time she scans a New World receipt on which fruit and veges are shown, but she also believed many people were not getting enough sleep.

Sovereign's survey found a third of people got less than seven hours sleep a night.

"I value my sleep, and I think more people should. We don't always get enough because of the activities we want to do, or because of stimulants, or watching TV," she said.

The biggest concerns included weight with almost one in 10 admitting they had put on more than 10 kilogrammes in the past decade.

Only 6 per cent of people rated their energy level as excellent, and only 40 per cent rated it as only "okay".

Money worries topped the list of stress "disruptors" blighting lives, ahead of family, health, work and personal problems.

REGIONAL FINDINGS

In Auckland, Canterbury, Wellington and the Waikato 32 per cent of people's habits gave them a "health age" of below their actual age.

In Southland 73 per cent of people's health ages were higher than their actual age, the highest in the country.

Aucklanders drink six times a week, the highest in the country.

Sixty-five per cent of Wellingtonians rate themselves as being fit, compared to 57 per cent in Canterbury, 52 per cent in Auckland, and just 38 per cent in the Waikato.