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The gap in life expectancy between men and women in New Zealand has narrowed, new findings from Statistics New Zealand show.
The findings come from New Zealand Births and Deaths: September 2007 quarter.
Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) has found the life expectancy of male and females narrowed from 6.4 years in 1975-1977 to 4.1 years in 2004-2006.
A newborn girl can now be expected to live until 81.9 years and a newborn boy to 77.9, it said.
Births also exceeded deaths by 34,220 in the September 2007 year, the highest natural increase since 1991.
The findings also found a slight increase in the number of children woman were having - from 2.0 to 2.1.
While the increase was not huge, SNZ said there were more births to women in all age groups compared with last year.
The findings found the increase was still nowhere near what it was 50 years ago when the average was 3.8 births.
The average age for woman giving birth was 28, it said.
Statistics New Zealand statistical analysis Anne Howard said there were no particular reasons for the increase.
She said she did not expect the increase to be sustained because other fertility indicators had showed more women were deciding not to have children.
- NZPA
