Mother Figures For Mothers Day (revised)
To acknowledge all mothers' hard work and caring, Statistics New Zealand would like to celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday,
8 May with some facts about new mothers in 2004.
There were 58,100 live births.
There were 31,456 first-time mothers, which represented 55 percent of all live births.
Twins were born to 540 first-time mothers, and another five new mothers had triplets.
A total of 1,860 children were multiple births. (Over the past three years, there has been a 6 percent rise in multiple
births.)
The median age of a first-time mother was 28 years.
New Zealand households spent:
– more than $20 million on baby food and infant needs
– about $89 million on nappies
– about $158 million on babysitting and child care costs.
On Mother's Day last year, 126 babies were born to 124 mothers.
Note: These figures exclude stillbirths.
Brian Pink
Government Statistician
END