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Appendix A

New Zealand Families Now

A1 THIS APPENDIX provides some information about New Zealanders and their family arrangements. Most of this information is drawn from the last (1991) five-yearly census.

Population, life expectancy and ethnicity

A2 The following information is derived from New Zealand Official Yearbook 1995 (Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, 1995), 111–131:

New Zealand’s total population as at 31 December 1995 was 3 642 500. New Zealand men had a general life expectancy in 1992–1994 of 73.4 years. New Zealand women had a general life expectancy in 1992–1994 of 79.1 years.
Recent data indicates that heart disease, cancer and cerebrovascular diseases (in that order) continue to be the three leading causes of death in New Zealand, and together account for over three-fifths of all deaths among the adult population in any year. Respiratory diseases claim another 10 percent. Motor-vehicle accidents cause another 3 percent of all deaths in a year, with teenagers, and those in their early twenties accounting for over four-fifths of these fatalities.

The ethnic groupings of New Zealand’s population in 1991 were as follows

Families in New Zealand

A3 The following statements are quoted from New Zealand Now: Families (Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, December 1994), 8:

The number of two-parent families in New Zealand is declining. In 1971 they accounted for two-thirds of New Zealand families, but by 1991 just under half of all families included two parents.
The nuclear family of a legally-married couple with at least one child [under 16 years of age], where the husband is the sole bread-winner and the wife the homemaker, accounted for only 13.5 percent of all families in 1991.
The number of families without children at home increased by 96 000 or 46 percent between 1976 and 1991. These families accounted for 17 percent of all families in 1991, compared with 9 percent in 1976.
One-parent families more than doubled in number between 1976 and 1991. These families accounted for 35 percent of all families in 1991, up slightly from 32 percent in 1986.
In recent years the number of de facto couple families (where partners cohabit or live together without having formally married) has risen sharply. In 1981 the number of de facto couple families with dependent children was 19 818, but by 1991 this had grown by 58 percent to 31 320.
Between 1981 and 1991 the total number of children in New Zealand families declined by 45 000, and the number of dependent children by 26 000.
One-child families are now the most common type of family in New Zealand, accounting for two in five families with children in 1991.

Family formation

A4 The following statements are quoted from New Zealand Now: Families (Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, December 1994), 22–23:

Although legal marriage has been a traditional pathway to the formation of families, the proportion of New Zealanders marrying has declined. In 1991, the general marriage rate (the number of marriages per 1 000 estimated mean not-married population aged 16 years and over) was 22, less than half the peak level of 45 in 1971.
A rising proportion of New Zealanders has never married. Between 1971 and 1991 the proportion of women aged 20–24 years who had never married increased from 36 to 78 percent. The corresponding rise for men was from 63 to 90 percent.
Marriage has become an event that occurs later in life, reflecting a shift back to the pattern that prevailed before World War II. Since the early 1970s the average age at first marriage has increased by over 3 years to 25 years for women and 27 years for men.
Paralleling the drop in the number of marriages, the nature and structure of families has also been affected by a rapid increase in divorce. In 1992, the divorce rate was 12 divorces per 1 000 married women, compared with about 8 per 1 000 at the start of the 1980s and with about three per 1 000 in the early 1960s.
Divorces today are less likely to involve children. The proportion of divorces involving children (those under 18 years of age) declined during the 1970s and 1980s, from 78 percent in 1978 to 52 percent in 1991.
The increase in divorce and separation has been the major contributor to the growth in the number of one-parent families in recent years. Of all sole parents in 1991, over half were divorced or separated, and only 19.5 percent were widowed. In 1971, the majority of sole parents were widows.
Between 1971 and 1991, the proportion of marriages which were remarriages for one or both partners doubled from 16 to 34 percent. Despite this increase, the chances of a previously married person marrying for a second or subsequent time has decreased.
Average family size has declined steadily over the past 2 decades. The total fertility rate of 2.18 births per 1 000 women in 1992 was almost half that of 1972.
In contrast to the overall decline in fertility, there has been an increase in childbearing outside marriage. Since the mid-1970s, the ex-nuptial birth rate has increased from 37 per 1 000 women who were not married to 52 per 1 000 in 1992. However, there is evidence that many of these births resulted from de facto relationships.
There has been a shift in childbearing from early to later parenting. In 1992, over a third of all childbearing was to women in their thirties as compared with one-fifth in the early 1980s.
The changing age structure of New Zealand’s population has had and will continue to have a substantial impact on the nature and structure of the family. The most fundamental change is the movement towards an older society. In the 20 years between 1971 and 1991, the median age of New Zealand’s population increased from 26 to 32 years.

De facto couples

A5 The following statements are quoted from New Zealand Now: Families (Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, December 1994), 37:

Between 1981 and 1991, the proportion of New Zealanders (over the age of 15) living with de facto partners increased from 3.8 to 6.2 percent. Eleven percent of couples living together in 1991 were in de facto relationships, as were 7 percent of couples with dependent children.
People in their twenties are the most likely to be living with de facto partners – 14 percent were in de facto marriages in 1991.
Women enter into de facto marriages at younger ages than men. Greater proportions of women than men live in de facto marriages in their late teens and early twenties but this pattern is reversed in older age groups.
The increase in de facto marriages has coincided with a fall in the proportions of people who are formally married – a trend which has been most marked amongst people in their twenties.
Twenty-four percent of people who were divorced and 17 percent who were separated were living with de facto partners in 1991, considerably higher than the proportions of never-married people. However, the fastest growth in the rate of de facto marriages between 1981 and 1991 was amongst people who had never formally married.
Eleven percent of Mäori were living with de facto partners in 1991, almost twice the rate of non-Mäori. However, the fastest growth in the rate of de facto marriages between 1981 and 1991 was amongst non-Mäori and non-Pacific Island people.
Four out of 10 de facto couples have children, compared with six out of 10 married couples.
Amongst families with dependent children, de facto couples tend to have fewer children than married couples – almost half have just one child, compared with a third of married couples. However, de facto couples are more likely to have at least one child of preschool age.

Children

A6 The following statements are quoted from New Zealand Now: Children (Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, 1995), 29:

The proportion of children living in one parent families increased from 12 to 22 percent between 1981 and 1991.
Forty percent of Mäori children lived in sole parent families in 1991, compared to 28 percent of Pacific Island children and 15 percent of European children.
The proportion of children living in families headed by de facto couples increased from 6 to 9 percent between 1981 and 1991. Mäori and Pacific Island children and those aged up to four years are the most likely to live in this situation.
Children in two-parent families have more siblings than those in one parent families. Mäori and Pacific Island children have more siblings than European children.
Children in sole parent families were more likely to have parents who were relatively young or relatively old, compared to children in two-parent families.
Of children who lived in sole-parent families, boys and older children were more likely to live with the father.
The proportion of children in sole-parent families who had lost a parent through death or separation dropped from 79 to 61 percent between 1981 and 1991, while the proportion of never-married sole parents increased from 13 to 35 percent over the decade.
Three out of four children living with their families in 1991 were living in houses owned by their parents.

Young adults

A7 The following statements are quoted from New Zealand Now: Families (Statistics New Zealand, Wellington, December 1994), 67:

Young adults are leaving home at later ages. Between 1981 and 1991, the proportion of people aged 15–24 living with their parents increased from 51 to 57 percent.
Women tend to leave home earlier than men because they form relationships at younger ages.
The proportion of young adults who live with their parents drops with age, from virtually all 15-year-olds to just over half of 20-year-olds and just under one-quarter of 24-year-olds. The most rapid decline occurs between the ages of 17 and 18.
Young Mäori leave home earlier than young adults from other ethnic groups. Pacific Island people aged 20–24 are much more likely than members of Mäori and “Other” ethnic groups to live with their parents.
People aged 15–24 years who have never been married are the most likely to live with their parents, while those who are currently married are least likely to.
The increase in educational participation beyond the minimum school leaving age has undoubtedly played a role in increasing the overall proportion of young adults living with their parents, since students are more likely than non-students to live at home.
The longer time young people spend staying with parents is reflected in the 12 percent increase in the number of families with adult children, from 195 000 in 1981 to 220 000 in 1991.
Mäori and Pacific Island families with young adults living at home are larger on average than families from other ethnic groups, and are more likely to have other dependent children.

Artificial reproductive technologies

A8 The Report of the Ministerial Committee on Assisted Human Reproduction – Navigating Our Future (Department of Justice, Tribunals Division, 1994), 6 states:

It would seem that the most comprehensive data on [the] prevalence [of infertility] comes from Canada. If New Zealanders are similar to Canadians, and using data from our 1991 census of Households and Dwellings, estimates can be obtained using the same methods as those used by the Canadian Royal Commission [on New Reproductive Technologies (1994) Vol 1, 195–197]. . . . These [infertile] couples represent between 50–60 000 New Zealand adults, voters and taxpayers who are directly affected by infertility.