WELLINGTON, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand women chose to give birth much older than ever recorded, with the median age giving birth in New Zealand reaching 31.5 years in 2024, and 17 percent of Kiwi women aged 50-54 years have never had children, according to the statistics department Stats NZ on Tuesday.
The median age of 31.5 years is the highest since records began in 1962, while the lowest median age recorded was 24.8 years in 1972, Stats NZ said, adding the median age had risen to 28.5 years by 1994.
"Women who are having children now are often older than those of previous generations," said Stats NZ population estimates, projections and coverage spokesperson Victoria Treliving.
Median age is the age at which half of women giving birth are younger and half are older than this age and is for all births rather than first births, Treliving said, adding this births data, alongside the 2023 Census data, indicates a trend of Kiwi women having fewer children.
The statistics also showed an increase in the proportion of women aged 50-54 years who have never had children, rising from 15 percent in 2013 to 17 percent in 2023. Meanwhile, the proportion of women aged 50-54 with three or more children has decreased from 37 percent to 31 percent over the same period.
In 2024, there were 58,341 registered live births, up 2.4 percent from 2023, Treliving said, adding the total fertility rate remained steady at 1.56 for both 2023 and 2024. ■
