How many babies are born in New Zealand each year?

An estimated 58 thousand babies are born in New Zealand in 2026, according to the UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium projection. That is about 159 a day and 0.04% of all births worldwide.

What is the birth rate in New Zealand?

New Zealand has an estimated 11.0 births per 1,000 people in 2026, and a total fertility rate of 1.64 children per woman.

Oceania · Australia/New Zealand

How many babies are born in New Zealand?

58 thousand babies born in New Zealand in 2026 — 0.04% of all births worldwide, and the 127th largest of any country. UN projection

159births per day
7per hour
0per minute
11.0births per 1,000 people
1.64children per woman
5.29 millionpopulation

Plus or minus about 6%. These years have not happened yet or have not been counted yet. They are the medium variant of the UN's projection, not a record of births that took place.

Births in New Zealand through history

Estimated annual births in New Zealand, 0 CE to 2026, on a logarithmic scale. The shaded band on the left marks the years where births are modelled rather than recorded. The marker sits on 2026.

Every figure refers to the area inside New Zealand's present-day borders. Before 1800 the state did not exist in its current form — see how borders are handled.
Year	Estimated births	Population	Per 1,000	Evidence
1500	~4.2K	~80K	52.0	Modelled estimate
1800	~7.41K	~200K	37.0	Historical reconstruction
1900	~20.7K	~809K	25.6	Historical reconstruction
1950	49.1K	1.91M	25.7	UN estimate
2000	56.6K	3.86M	14.7	UN estimate
2024	59.1K	5.21M	11.3	UN projection
2026	58K	5.29M	11.0	UN projection

What the numbers show

Annual births in New Zealand are at their highest in the whole run of estimates in 1961, at about 65K. That is roughly 86 times the estimated ~677 births a year in 1200.

At 1.64 children per woman, fertility in New Zealand is below the level of about 2.1 that would hold a population steady over the long run without migration.

See New Zealand on the map

Where these numbers come from

2026 figures are the UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium variant. Earlier years come from the UN's estimates (1950 onward), Gapminder's reconstructions (1800–1949) and a model applied to HYDE population estimates (before 1800). The full chain is set out in the methodology, and every source is listed on the sources page.