New Zealand’s birth rate keeps falling and it’s no wonder – Editorial

The total fertility rate was 1.53 births per woman, but in 1960, the average Kiwi woman had four children. Photo / 123rf

Editorial

EDITORIAL

The number of children Kiwi women are having continues to fall and it’s easy to see why amid the cost-of-living crisis and positive societal change.

Data from Stats NZ this week shows 57,006 live births were registered in the year ended June 2024, down slightly from 57,534 in June 2023.

The total fertility rate was 1.53 births per woman, down from 1.60.

The drop itself is small, but it’s part of a bigger trend dramatically changing our demographics.

In 2010, New Zealand’s fertility rate was about 2.17 births per woman. In 1960, the average woman had four children.

In February this year, we experienced our lowest natural increase in population in 80 years – since 1943 during World War II.

Part of this is due to huge advances for women and positive societal change worth celebrating.

One can’t deny the benefits for women of more available contraception, education choices, career advancements, childcare and a wider appreciation of all they can do.

A graph shows our plummeting fertility rates in New Zealand since the world wars.

The recent focus and appreciation of the suitably dubbed “supermums” at the Paris Olympics exemplifies just how far women have come pairing motherhood with high performance.

Rowers Emma Twigg, Lucy Spoors and Brooke Francis were recognised not only for their wins on the water, but for the fact they had achieved them within years of having a baby – and in the midst of raising a young child.

Sleep deprivation alone would make what they achieved challenging, let alone the physical changes their bodies had been through and sorting childcare to cover their training.

They are role models for women everywhere of what can be achieved in your career while also embarking on motherhood.

For many, achieving such greatness would mean settling for a smaller family of one or two children, rather than a brood of four or five. For others, it would mean choosing not to have children at all.

It’s simply how we’ve been raising women in this country for decades – showing them all they can achieve and be. We proudly celebrate being the first in the world to give women the right to vote.

Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors with Keira and Rupert. Photo / Rowing New Zealand

It’s no surprise that women are having fewer babies to cope with such demanding lives. It’s expensive working or chasing a dream while raising children. Many are also leaving it later to start a family while they embark on a career or save up to take time off work, potentially taking the choice out of their hands.

Parents who spoke to the Herald in March about our falling birth rate said rising costs were a key decider in their choosing not to have more children.

They cited high rents and house prices, expensive groceries and hefty power bills as a large barrier to being able to have another child.

The trend follows many other high-income countries, some of which have been dealing with such a decline for decades with little success in bringing numbers back up.

Massey University sociologist Paul Spoonley said we still had a long way to go to match Italy, Portugal or Germany where the fertility rate’s down to about 1.2 births per woman, “but we’re getting there”.

It’s a trend that will undoubtedly change this country’s demographic to one where older people outnumber the young, and it’s a trend that’s unlikely to change.