Three's fun, but average for women now just 2.1

Maree Howcroft says having three boys (pictured here with William and Tom) - is loud, 'but it's great, it's challenging, it's busy'. She remembers how much fun she had growing up in a big family. Photo / Paul Estcourt

The birth rate has dropped by more than half since the 1960s - and a mother says economic realities often force the issue.

Statistics New Zealand said yesterday that in the year to September 30, the average woman was mother of 2.1 children, compared with 4.3 in 1961, when the birth rate was at its peak.

Onehunga mother Maree Howcroft grew up in a four-child home and said she had seen it as an ideal number.

"I always wanted four, but we've stopped at three - the economy is probably the reason," she said. "It was really fun growing up in a big family."

She now has three boys - Tom, 6, William, 4, and George, 2.

Her first child came at 31, five years later than the norm for her mother's generation.

She said it had just worked out that way after travelling - she was a personal assistant in London, and met her husband abroad.

Mrs Howcroft came home to New Zealand to start her family, and decided she would wait to go back to work until the children grew older.

"For a while we had three kids under 5, and to put three kids in preschool, it uses up all your wages."

Mrs Howcroft works 10 hours from home, but otherwise has her hands full with the three boys.

"It's loud - but it's great, it's challenging, it's busy."

Only two of the 13 mothers in her coffee group had more than two children, she said.

In the early 1960s, the median age for women giving birth was 26 and those aged 20 to 24 had the highest fertility rate at 265 per 1000.

For the September year, women aged 20-24 had only 74 babies per 1000 and the median age of those giving birth was 30.

BABY TALK

NOW

* 2.1 - children per woman

* 30 to 34 - most popular ages to have a child

1960s

* 4.3 - children per woman

* 20 to 24 - most popular ages to have a child

- additional reporting by APNZ