Stats NZ said 20 percent of Nelson's population is aged 65 years old or over, compared with 16 percent for the whole of New Zealand, and therefore a higher proportion of deaths in Nelson will be of older people, increasing the median age at death.
Other areas with a high median lifespan include Marlborough, Otago, Canterbury, Taranaki, and Wellington.
The median lifespan has increased by more than a decade since 1949, when the median lifespan for a man was 67, and for a woman was 69.
Stats NZ population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said even in the last twenty years the median lifespan for both men and women have increased by a couple of years.
In 1999 the median lifespan for men was 75, and for women 81.
There were 34,260 registered deaths in New Zealand in 2019, up from 33,225 in 2018, and 59,637 live births, compared with 58,020 in 2018.