"If you add those to the 6500, you're up to 8000 lives of people who lived this year who would have died if it wasn't for the Covid-19 response," he said.
Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ) chief executive David Moger said the downturn was "significant" and Covid-19 was responsible.
He said death fell into three principal categories: Natural process, illness or disease, and normal activities of life like accidents, crime, and crashes.
"The lockdowns, particularly level 4 and level 3, curtailed activity quite considerably," Moger said.
Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand chief executive David Moger. Photo / Supplied
"Because people were locked down, the normal activity of life wasn't happening and therefore the accidents weren't happening."
People were still dying of old age, baring illness or accident, and the rate had remained stable, Moger said.
The lockdowns and other pandemic responses such as Managed Isolation and Quarantine meant there had been no influenza season either.
"We'll probably be about 2000 deaths down across the country for the year ... the key part of that really has been the [how] Covid-19 is being managed," he said.
"The activities that we use to limit the potential spread of Covid-19: social distancing, hand washing, face masks and so on, are equally as effective against the flu.
"Access to aged care facilities were severely limited to protect the vulnerable residents within those facilities. When you put all that together ... you can see why those numbers have been impacted."
Each year, before Covid-19, more than 200,000 Kiwis catch influenza - the flu - and an estimated 500 die from it. That's more than the annual road toll.
However, 2020 was different, with flu rates deep-diving across New Zealand.
Last month, Three Lakes Clinic general practitioner Dr Cate Mills suspected influenza would have a limited impact in the future.
Rotorua's death rate dropped from 612 to 564 total between 2019 and 2020. Photo / Ben Fraser
"All the precautions that we're taking for Covid-19, equally work for the influenza virus," she said.
"The hand hygiene, the social distancing, and not going out when we're sick [means] we're not transmitting it as well. It's great."
Baker said the damage of influenza could be lessened in the future if people used face masks more generally.
"We think the areas that are important are on public transport but also in doctors' waiting rooms," he said.
"If people wear masks where they are forced to congregate would push down the reproduction rate of influenza and could save lives."
Elsewhere, Rotorua's Kiwi Coffin Club Charitable Trust saw a business decrease between 10 and 15 per cent, trustee Ron Wattam said.
Wattam reiterated Moger's comments, saying he believed Covid-19 was the key driver.
"Everyone stayed home, no one was killed on the roads, there were no winter flu or [other] ailments," he said.
Ministry of Transport data showed 29 people died on Bay of Plenty roads in 2020, down from 40 in 2019.
The decline in road user deaths reflected the nationwide trend where 320 people died in 2020 compared to 352 in 2019.
Ron Wattam from Kiwi Coffin Club Charitable Trust. Photo / Stephen Parker
Rotorua follows national birth rate trend, Tauranga does not
The number of babies born in Rotorua in 2020 was 78 lower than in 2019, following the nationwide trend.
According to Stats NZ, the 2020 total fertility rate (TFR) dropped from 1.72 in 2019 to 1.61 births per woman - the lowest on record for New Zealand.
TFR is the number of children who would be born per woman if they were to pass through childbearing years with the age-specific fertility rates remaining the same.
There was a small increase in babies born in Whakatāne of nine between 2019 and 2020, and in Tauranga, it increased by six to 1758.
Massey University population expert Distinguished Professor Paul Spoonley said Tauranga was bucking the trend.
"Tauranga is one of the hot points in terms of growth - Queenstown has been knocked off its perch."
Massey University Distinguished Professor Paul Spoonley. Photo / Doug Sherring
The main factors were a younger age profile migrating to the city and a significant Māori population which had children younger and had more overall, he said.
"It's that combination of a significant Māori population and the fact that Tauranga has tended to be a magnet for internal and international migrants," Spoonley said.
"Tauranga has the second-highest internal migration of any centre in New Zealand. That's the net-inward migration versus net-outward migration internally."
Spoonley said the city was in outlier as it had one of the highest proportions of old people in the country but it also had significant growth from younger generations.
