Majority of Babies in NZ Now Born to Unwed Parents
November 17, 2022
PHOTO: Mindy Olson P on Unsplash
The number of babies born to unmarried parents in New Zealand has surpassed the number born to married parents for the first time.
Provisional births and deaths figures released by Stats NZ today also revealed there were 633 fewer live births in the country in the year ended 30 September, and 3474 more deaths.
Of the 58,749 live births registered, 29,508 babies - or 50.2 percent - were born to parents who were not married.
However, almost two thirds of those babies had parents who were living together in a de facto relationship.
The fertility rate remained well below the population replacement level of 2.1 births per woman, dropping slightly to 1.65 births, from 1.66 the previous year.
Infant mortality rates also declined, with 3.57 deaths per 1000 live births, down from 4.5.