Woman are having fewer babies now than at any time in New Zealand's history.

New Zealand women are having fewer babies than they have ever had before.

Stats NZ reports that the total fertility rate in 2017 was 1.81 births per woman. This is the country's lowest recorded level.

Although the number of births was up 180 from 2016 to 59,610, the bigger population meant in 2017 the average dropped. In 2016, the average was 1.87.

Stats NZ New Zealand's fecundity has hit a new low.

Population statistics manager Peter Dolan said the population continued to grow because of near record levels of migration.

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He said New Zealand's "replacement level" of births needed was about 2.1 per woman. That's the average number of children each woman needs to have over their lifetime for the country to maintain its current population.

Despite the drop, overall the fertility rate has been stable for the last four decades, ranging from last year's 1.81 up to 2.19 in 2008.

Dolan said the big rises came following the Great Depression and World War II. The peak was 4.31 births per woman in 1961.

Australia's latest figures are its 2016 birth rate at 1.79.

Dolan said younger women were driving the birth rate down in New Zealand. Women aged 15–29 had record low birth rates.

And teens were also having far fewer babies. In 2017 they had half the babies they had in 2008, and under a quarter of the babies they had in 1972.