The number of babies born in New Zealand these days is half of what they used to be about 40 years ago. There were nearly 65000 babies born last year.

The number of live births in 2010 was 63900. This was 2% more than the number of births in the year 2009 that was 62550.

The number of deaths registered in the country has come down to 28440 from 28960n in the year 2009; this was made clear according to a study conducted in the Statistics of New Zealand.

In the year 1961, the number of births recorded was the highest 65390. This was when the total population of the country was merely 2.5 million as compared to the huge 4.4 million it is now.

The birth rate per woman had reached a huge 4.3 births in the year 1961.

This is obviously much more than the 2.1 per woman rate of last year. It was in the year 2002 that the lowest number of bir6hs 54,020 babies was recorded.

"Annual fluctuations in births, in part, reflect changes in the size and age of the population, the age at which women have children, and the number of children they have", population statistics manager Bridget Hamilton-Seymour said.

Indeed the number of births toady influences the population of the future.