Birth Rates

Statistics New Zealand compiles birth statistics for New Zealand.

In the year to March 30, 2011:

• There were 63,180 live births registered in New Zealand. This was down 770 (1 percent) on the figure for the March 2010 year. The highest number of births ever recorded in any March year was 65,800 in 1962.

• The median age (half are younger and half older than this age) of New Zealand women giving birth is now 30 years, compared with 26 years in the early 1960s.

• The total fertility rate indicates, on average, the number of babies a woman would have in her lifetime if the age-specific fertility rates in a given period stayed the same throughout her life. The total fertility rate for the March 2011 year was 2.12 births per woman – down slightly from 2.16 in the March 2010 year.

• Women aged 30 to 34 years had the highest age-specific fertility rate (125 births per 1,000 women). 

See the Statistics New Zealand website for more information on birth statistics in New Zealand.