No-child families becoming more common

Raewyn Carr and Thomas Flinn enjoy their lifestyle. Photo / Doug Sherring

Move over Married-With-Children: childless couples could overtake you as the main New Zealand family type as soon as 2012.

At last year's census, couples with children numbered 447,894, or 42 per cent of all families, a runny nose ahead of the 425,973 couples without children (40 per cent). Another 193,635, or 18 per cent, consisted of one parent with a child or children.

Statistics New Zealand defines a family as a couple, with or without children, or a sole parent with offspring, who usually live together.

Childless couples include those whose children have left home, and those who've never had children. Many are dinks - "double-income-no-kids".

Statistics New Zealand chief demographer Mansoor Khawaja said latest projections put childless couples as the most common family type in five to 10 years.

One reason is a growing trend for women to never have children. The census showed that 461,217, or 28 per cent of women had no children.

As well as being foiled by infertility, couples are making a conscious choice to not become parents. Auckland celebrant Kerry-Ann Stanton said, "Some couples are very clear children don't figure in the future."

There are no babies on the horizon for designer Thomas Flinn, 34, and accountant Raewyn Carr, 33, who have been in a de facto relationship for six years. The couple have just returned from Britain, where they lived the ultimate dink lifestyle.

Flinn said: "Our whole group of friends had no children and no plans to, and all their money was going towards travel and eating and drinking. It was a good lifestyle."

But New Zealand's levels of childlessness pales against Germany's, where it's predicted 30 per cent of women will not have kids.