Northland has highest birth rate in nation

Northland mothers are apparently producing more babies than women in any other region of New Zealand.

It appears Northland mothers are doing their bit for population growth by producing more babies than women in any other region in New Zealand.

More are also starting earlier in Northland, the latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show.

Overall, New Zealand is among other developed countries where the birth rate is below "replacement" level. The crunching of numbers show that the number of births a Northland woman would have in her lifetime, based on current fertility rates averaged out at 2.55, well above the national rate of 2.02 births.

The latest figures released by Statistics NZ also showed Northland had the most births by teenaged mothers last year, comprising 207 of the 2161 babies born in the region in 2014.

At the other end of the country, Otago had the lowest birth rate, at 1.67 per woman. Only 88 of Otago's 2219 births last year were to teenaged mothers.

But the figures alone tell little other than how many babies have been born and the current average number of births per woman, says University of Auckland associate professor of population health, Susan Morton.

At this stage, the figures do not come with regional breakdowns of the race, education, income or other details of the mothers.

The snapshot of birth rates hide a whole complexity of things, Dr Morton says. Ethnicity and other details need to be considered for a true picture of population growth, or decline, and more sense could be made of figures measured or analysed over a long period.

"We know that Maori women start their families earlier and have fairly higher fertility. There is also anecdotal evidence that in times of recession people have more babies, not fewer."

Nor did birth rates on their own represent the diversity of migration to Northland, local employment and other demographics.

Dr Morton said it was too "simplistic" to attribute a region's birth rate to any one thing such as education or the age of the mothers.

However, says Statistics NZ population statistics manager Vina Cullum, the variations in birth rates reflect regional characteristics. The Otago figures reflected the high number of young women studying in Dunedin who delayed childbirth until they had completed their studies, by which time many would have moved elsewhere, Ms Cullum said.

The statistics, based on three years of data with the 2103 census year in the middle, show Northland has taken over from Gisborne with the highest birth rate per population.