Gisborne baby boom helps to keep the numbers rising

Gisborne couples last year made the biggest contribution to the first increase in New Zealand's live births for 11 years.

At the other end of the scale, Otago had the lowest fertility rate last year.

But despite Gisborne's best efforts, the birthrate is still below the level needed for the country's population to replace itself without migration.

Statistics New Zealand said there were 58,070 live births last year.

That was 3.5 per cent higher than in 2003 and the highest number of live births since 1993, when 58,780 were registered.

A population needs 2.1 births per woman to replace itself without migration.

New Zealand had 2.01 births per woman last year.

But the national fertility rate is higher than France (1.9 births per woman), Australia (1.8), Sweden, England and Wales, and the Netherlands (all 1.7).

Gisborne people took the fertility honours with 2.64 births per woman last year.

Seven other regions - Northland (2.51), Bay of Plenty (2.39), Hawkes Bay (2.38), Southland (2.18), Taranaki (2.15), Waikato (2.13) and the West Coast (2.11) - had total fertility rates at or above replacement level.

Otago had just 1.61 births per woman.

Canterbury and Wellington had 1.75, and Auckland's rate was 1.95.

Statistics New Zealand also noted a continuing trend toward delayed motherhood.

On average, New Zealand women are having children five years later than in the early 1970s.

The median age of women giving birth is now 30.3 years, compared with 28.5 years in 1994 and 24.9 years in 1974.

Last year, women aged 30 to 34 had the highest fertility rate - 120 births per 1000 women - followed by those aged 25 to 29, who had 110 births per 1000 women.

In the 1970s, the 20 to 24 age group's fertility rate was about 200 births per 1000 women.

Last year, 28,420 New Zealanders died, compared with 28,010 in 2003.

Statistics NZ says a newborn girl can now expect to live, on average, 81.2 years, and a newborn boy 76.7 years. This is a 1.5-year gain for females and 2.3 years for males since 1995-1997.

The infant (less than one year) mortality rate has dropped over the past 10 years from seven deaths per 1000 live births in 1994 to 5.6 per 1000 last year.

The excess of births over deaths - the natural population increase - was 29,650 last year, up 1530, or 5.4 per cent, on 2003.

Natural increase accounted for 66 per cent of New Zealand's population growth last year and migration for 34 per cent.

Births in NZ

* Average age of mothers: 30. In 1974, it was just under 25.

* Average life expectancy for babies: 81 for girls, 76 for boys.

* Babies dying before their first birthday: 5.6 per 1000, down from 7 per 1000 in 1994.

- NZPA