Meet Ava, NZ's six millionth baby

NZME.

4 Jun, 2015 05:58 PM2 mins to read

Ava with Kerry, Oliver and older sister Mia. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand's birth registrar has hit the six million mark.

A little girl from Auckland called Ava was the six millionth baby to be registered in New Zealand on May 29.

Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages Jeff Montgomery said the number of births registered had steadily increased since recording began. Compulsory registration of births began in 1847, and extended to Maori births in 1913.

"There were just over 500 births registered in 1848. By the turn of the twentieth century nearly 20,000 births were registered each year and, by 1950, this number more than doubled to 51,000 births registered each year," he said.

Both parents of a child born in New Zealand must jointly notify a birth as soon as is reasonably practicable, generally deemed as being within two months of the birth.

Mr Montgomery said an average of 1000 births were registered each week and around 60,000 were registered each year.

"The entire process of registering a birth has changed significantly," he said.

"Right up till the 1960s, records were painstakingly handwritten and then until the late 1990s typewriters were used. All new registrations since 1998 are fully computerised and by June 2002 the old paper-based records had been digitised. Now these records are held in computerised data systems that enable staff to search millions of records electronically."

Number of births registered in New Zealand/Year

1st million1915

2nd million1946

3rd million1964