• Population size and growth
• Components of population change
• People born overseas
• Fertility
• Distribution of the population
• Ethnic composition of the population
• Age and sex structure of the population
• Households
• Housing tenure
• Families with children
• Official languages
• New Zealanders experiencing disability
• Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people

Fertility

Fertility rates for the year 2007 indicate that New Zealand women average 2.17 births per woman. This is higher than the rate of 2.01 births per woman in 2006 and just above the level required by any population to replace itself without migration (2.1 births per woman). Several other OECD countries have experienced a recent rise in fertility, including the United States (now second after New Zealand with a rate of 2.1 births per woman in 2006) and Australia. Despite the increase, most other developed countries have sub-replacement fertility rates, including France (1.9 births per woman in 2005), Norway and England and Wales (1.9 in 2006), Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Australia (1.8 in 2006), the Netherlands (1.7 in 2006), Canada (1.5 in 2005) and Japan (1.3 in 2006). The comparatively high rate in New Zealand reflects, in part, the higher fertility rates of Māori women (2.94 births per woman in 2007) and Pacific women (2.95 in 2005–2007).

The median age of New Zealand women giving birth has risen from 27 years in the 1980s to just over 30 years since 2002. For women having their first birth, the median age is 28 years. Age at childbearing varies widely by ethnicity, with European and Asian mothers having the highest median age (31 years in 2006), followed by Pacific mothers (28 years) and Māori mothers (26 years).

In 2007, the teenage fertility rate was 31.6 births per 1,000 females aged 15–19 years, an increase from 28.4 per 1,000 in 2006. The teenage fertility rate fell between 1997 and 2002 (from 33.2 to 25.8 per 1,000) but rose by almost as much between 2002 and 2007. Over the same period, the Māori teenage fertility rate fell from 84.0 per 1,000 in 1997 to 61.8 per 1,000 in 2002, rising to 78.7 per 1,000 by 2007. For non-Māori females under 20 years, the pattern was similar but less pronounced: a fall in the rate between 1997 and 2003 (from 19.9 to 15.7 per 1,000), followed by a rise to 18.9 per 1,000 in 2007. The birth rate for Pacific females aged 15–19 years declined from 47.4 per 1,000 in 2000–2002 to 42.5 per 1,000 in 2005–2007.

New Zealand has a relatively high rate of childbearing at young ages compared with most other developed countries. At 31.6 births per 1,000 females aged 15–19 years in 2007, the New Zealand teenage birth rate is higher than the rate in England and Wales (26.6 per 1,000 in 2006) but considerably lower than that of the United States (41.9 per 1,000 in 2006).