Births And Deaths: Year Ended December 2025

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.

Key facts

In the year ended December 2025:

• 57,705 live births and 37,491 deaths were registered in Aotearoa New Zealand, resulting in a natural increase (live births minus deaths) of 20,214
• there were 636 fewer births and 231 fewer deaths compared with the year ended December 2024
• the infant mortality rate was 4.8 deaths per 1,000 live births
• the total fertility rate was 1.55 births per woman, slightly lower than in the year ended December 2024 (1.57).

The abridged period life table for 2023-2025 shows:

• life expectancy was 80.4 years for newborn boys and 83.7 years for newborn girls
• life expectancy at birth was 0.3 years higher than in 2022-2024 (80.1 years for newborn boys, and 83.5 years for newborn girls).

Slightly fewer births in 2025

There were 57,705 live births registered in New Zealand in 2025. This was 636 (1.1 percent) fewer than in 2024 (58,341 live births), but higher than in 2023 when there were 56,995 live births registered.

Of the live births in 2025, 29,523 were boys (429 fewer boys than in 2024), and 28,182 were girls (204 fewer than in 2024). In most years around 51 percent of births are boys and 49 percent are girls.

Annual birth registrations have been below 60,000 since 2016. Annual fluctuations in births reflect changes in the size and age structure of the population, the age at which women have children, and the number of children they have. In turn, the number of births influences the future size and age structure of the population.

Fertility rates highest for women aged 30-34 years

Age-specific fertility (or birth) rates measure the number of live births that 1,000 women in a particular age group have in a given period (usually a year).

Over the past decade, fertility rates have generally decreased, especially for women under 30. The fertility rates for women, by age group, for 2025 compared with 2015 are:

• 15-19 years, down to 9.1 births per 1,000 women that age in 2025, from 18.6 in 2015
• 20-24 years, down to 42.1 from 64.7
• 25-29 years, down to 81.6 from 103.8
• 30-34 years, down to 102.7 from 124.1 (this age group has consistently had the highest fertility rate since 2002)
• 35-39 years, down to 61.7 from 70.8
• 40-44 years, down to 13.7 from 14.6.

Total fertility rate drops to lowest December rate on record

The total fertility rate (TFR) summarises the age-specific fertility rates into a single-number indicator of fertility. It shows the average number of babies that women would have in their life if the age-specific fertility rates in a given period stayed the same throughout their lives. Annual fluctuations in the TFR do not necessarily indicate changes in average family size, but may indicate changes in the timing of births.

In 2025, the TFR was 1.55 births per woman, down from 1.57 in 2023 and 2024. The lower fertility rate is due to a combination of fewer births and an increased number of women of reproductive age.

The TFR was relatively stable from 1980 to around 2012, averaging 2.02 births per woman and ranging from 1.89 births per woman (in both 1998 and 2002) to 2.19 (in 2008). Since 2013, the TFR has steadily declined, falling below 1.8 since 2018.

New Zealand's fertility rate has not always been stable or decreasing. For example, fertility rates increased dramatically following the Great Depression and World War II, peaking at 4.31 births per woman in 1961. New Zealand experienced decreasing fertility over the next two decades.

Parenting and fertility trends in New Zealand: 2018 provides some additional insights into the long-term changes in fertility rates.

Life expectancy increases by 0.3 years

Based on death rates during 2023-2025, the abridged period life table indicates that a newborn boy can expect to live, on average, 80.4 years, and a newborn girl, 83.7 years.

Life expectancy at birth increased by 0.3 years for both males and females compared with the 2022-2024 complete period life tables. This follows the period between 2017-2019 and 2022-2024 when there was virtually no change in life expectancy.

Life expectancy at age 65 is 84.7 years for males (a further 19.7 years), and 86.8 years for females (a further 21.8 years).

Period life expectancy is the average length of life remaining at a given age, assuming people experience the age-specific death rates of a specific period from that age onwards. For example, life expectancies for the period 2023-2025 are based on death rates for that period only.

More information about life tables

Life tables give a more detailed comparison of mortality and survival trends, including life expectancy between populations and time periods.

Like many countries, Stats NZ produces period life tables for a rolling three-year window, to reduce the impact of statistical fluctuations giving a misleading measure of longevity trends. The life expectancy from period life tables assumes people experience the age-specific death rates of a specific period from that age onwards. If death rates decline, the actual life expectancy of babies born in the same period will be higher than these figures .

The annual complete cohort life tables will be published on 27 March 2026. These give the most authoritative measure of how long New Zealanders have lived, and are likely to live, by tracking survival and mortality at each age for those born from 1876 onwards. These life tables are produced independent of census-based population estimates, and are the basis of the How long will I live? tool.

National and subnational period life tables: 2022-2024 include life tables for major ethnic groups, give a more comprehensive picture of mortality and survival trends, and are published five-yearly. These complete period life tables use the 2023-base population estimates to measure the life expectancy of New Zealand's ethnic populations and subnational areas during the three-year period 2022-2024.

Weekly deaths data

Provisional weekly deaths data is now published quarterly as part of the births and deaths releases published in February, May, August, and November each year. This is in response to the ongoing demand for weekly deaths data following the closure of the Stats NZ COVID-19 data portal in August 2024.

The weekly deaths data is provisional and sourced directly from the Department of Internal Affairs. It is based on the date of death (occurrence), with weeks ending on a Sunday. Other deaths data published by Stats NZ may differ slightly from the weekly deaths data due to being based on date of registration rather than occurrence, and further processing of the data supplied.

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.

Technical enquiries

Rebekah Hennessey
[email protected]
04 931 4600

ISSN 1178-0436

Next release

Births and deaths: Year ended March 2026 will be released on 18 May 2026.