Birth rate hits decade low as women hold off

The number of children born in New Zealand in the last year is the lowest in a decade, and the rate is too low for the population to replace itself.

The Department of Statistics said yesterday that 54,700 live births were registered for the 12 months to March.

That was down 3 per cent on the 56,600 births in the year ended March 2001.

"This latest figure continues the downturn evident since the peak of 60,300 in 1992," said Government Statistician Brian Pink.

"This drop is largely due to a decrease in the number of women in their twenties and partly because fewer of these women are having children."

The average number of births over a woman's lifetime was 1.97, about 6 per cent below the 2.1 births needed for the population to replace itself without migration.

New Zealand's fertility rate was about 10 per cent higher than those of Australia, Canada, England, Wales, France and Sweden.

Women in the 30-34 age group had the highest fertility rate, recording 113 births per 1000 in the last year.

Women in the 20-29 age group had 112 births per 1000.

"This represents a major departure from the early 1970s, when early marriage and early childbearing were the norm," Mr Pink said.

"The average age of New Zealand women giving birth is now 29.5 years, which suggests new mothers are on average four years older than their counterparts in the early 1970s."

The fertility rate for teenagers fell 2.6 per cent during the year to March, to a new low of 27 births per 1000. This was about 20 per cent lower than the 35 per 1000 figure for in 1992 and well below half the 69 per 1000 in 1972.

In the same 12-month period fertility rates for women in the 20-34 age group also fell.

The greatest drop was in the 20-24 group, which was down 4.5 per cent to 75 births per 1000.

"In New Zealand, as in other developed nations, older motherhood remains the preferred reproductive norm."

Overall, births exceeded deaths by 26,600, down 3400 from the 30,000 natural increase recorded in the preceding 12 months.

There were 26,500 deaths in the 12 months to March.

The rate of natural increase fell to 6.9 per 1000, down from 7.8 for the previous year and 9.7 in 1992.

Migration accounted for 49 per cent of the population growth and natural increase for the rest.

The statistics show a newborn girl can expect to live 80.8 years on average, and a boy 75.7 years.

- NZPA