Births and deaths releases provide statistics on the number of births and deaths of people resident in New Zealand that are registered during a given period, along with selected fertility and mortality rates. They may differ from statistics presented elsewhere that relate to all births and deaths registered in New Zealand or to births and deaths occurring during a given period.
Download data
monthly-death-registrations-by-ethnicity-age-and-sex-january-2010-march-2023 (1)Download
Key facts
In the year ended March 2023 compared with the year ended March 2022:
- 58,707 live births were registered, down from 60,141
- 38,835 deaths were registered, up from 35,394
- the total fertility rate was 1.65 births per woman, down from 1.69
- the infant mortality rate was 3.58 deaths per 1,000 live births, down from 4.19.
The increase in deaths in the March 2023 year (9.7 per cent) reflects more deaths in 2022 as a result of Covid-19, combined with an ageing population – there are increasing numbers and proportions of the population in older ages, where most deaths occur.
Deaths increase by 10 per cent in 2022 has more information on the increased deaths in 2022.
Access data in Infoshare
Use Infoshare to view and download time-series data for births and deaths:
Subject category: Population
Group: Births – VSB
Group: Birth rates – DFM
Group: Deaths – VSD
Group: Death rates – DMM
Definitions and metadata
Births – DataInfo+ gives the general methodology used to produce birth statistics and related metadata.
Deaths – DataInfo+ gives the general methodology used to produce death statistics and related metadata.
New Zealand abridged period life tables – DataInfo+ gives the general methodology used to produce the abridged period life tables.
