Births on the rise again

Sixty-four thousand births were registered in New Zealand in the year ended June 2010, Statistics New Zealand said today. Live births in the June 2010 year were 2 percent higher than the June 2009 year (62,960) but similar to the 64,140 registrations in 2008.

"With the exception of 2009, births have increased in each June year since dropping to a low of 53,970 in 2002," Population Statistics manager Bridget Hamilton-Seymour said.

The Auckland region accounted for almost 80 percent of the increase in the June 2010 year. Six regions (Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Otago, West Coast, and Gisborne) experienced a small drop in births between 2009 and 2010.

Just over one-quarter of a million babies have been born in the four years between 2007 and 2010. These babies will have an impact on school rolls in the next few years, with a flow on effect on tertiary institutions and the working population in the future.

Other statistics from birth and death registrations released today indicate that in the June 2010 year:

• there were 64,120 live births
• the birth rate was 2.2 births per women, about half of the peak of 4.3 births per woman in 1961
• there were 28,840 deaths registered
• births exceeded deaths by 35,280.