Median age of mothers still 30 years

 

In the year ended March 2010, the median age of women giving birth was 30 years, Statistics New Zealand said today. This figure has been relatively stable over the last decade. In the early 1980s, a generation earlier, the median age was around 26 years.

The median age of mothers varies across the regions. Based on births registered in the ten years to March 2010, Gisborne had the youngest median age (28 years), followed by Manawatu-Wanganui, Northland, Hawke's Bay, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Southland, Waikato, and West Coast (all 29 years). Marlborough and Nelson's median ages were the same as the national median of 30 years. The remaining regions (Auckland, Otago, Tasman, Canterbury, and Wellington) had median ages of 31 years.

"The regional differences in the median ages of mothers reflect the different age structures of the regional populations as well as different childbearing patterns," Population Statistics manager Denise McGregor said.

In total, 63,950 live births were registered in New Zealand in the March 2010 year, down less than 1 percent from the March 2009 year. The highest ever number of births registered in a March year was 65,800 in 1962. At the time New Zealand's population numbered just 2.5 million, compared with 4.3 million in 2010. The current birth rate is 2.2 births per woman, about half of the peak of 4.3 births per woman recorded in 1961. 

There were also 28,840 deaths registered in the year ended March 2010, down slightly from 29,150 in the March 2009 year. 

 Geoff Bascand 17 May 2010

 Government Statistician