Birth rate up from last year, but still low, says SNZ

1.00pm

The number of live births in New Zealand over the last year has increased but has not returned to the level of two years ago, Statistics New Zealand announced today.

In the year to June 2003, there were about 54,940 live births - 1000 more than the year to June 2002, but 1300 fewer than in the year to June 2001.

SNZ said the rates for this year suggested New Zealand women had an average of 1.92 births each. This was 9 per cent lower than the level required for the population to replace itself without migration.

But while the figures were still low, the fertility rate was at least 10 per cent higher than that in Canada, England, Wales and Sweden.

SNZ said the trend toward delayed motherhood was also continuing.

On average, New Zealand women were now having children five years later than their counterparts in the early 1970s.

The median age of New Zealand women giving birth was now 30.2 years, compared with 28.3 years in 1993 and 24.9 years in the 1970s.

Women in the 30-34 age group had the highest numbers of births - 113 per 1000 women - with 25 to 29-year-olds coming in second, with 107 births per 1000 women.

"This represents a significant departure from the early 1970s when early marriage and early childbearing were the norm, and the age group of 20-24 years was the commonest age for childbearing," SNZ said.

The fertility rate for that age group in the 1970s was over 200 per 1000 women, but in the year to June 2003, there were only 69 births per 1000 women.

The number of teenage births was now low -- 25 per 1000 compared with 69 per 1000 in 1972.

Meanwhile, registered deaths to June 2003 totalled 27,760 -- about 1 per cent less than in 2002.

A newborn girl could now expect to live on average 80.9 years and a boy 76 years. This was an increase of 2.2 years for girls and 3.1 years for boys since 1992.

The natural population increase was 27,180 this year, up 1270 on 2002. However, the natural increase this year was lower than that recorded in any of the years 1988-2001.

- NZPA