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Appendix D

Tables

TABLE 1: Adoptions to strangers and non-strangers

A B C D E F G H I

Adopted by Adopted by Non-stranger Total non- Total Unkn Total Adoption to Adoption to

Year strangers birth parents or relative strangers known data adopt strangers non-stranger

1955 984 72.0% 275 20.1% 107 7.8% 382 28.0% 1366 89 1455 984 67.6% 471 32.4%

1956 424 59.5% 219 30.8% 69 9.7% 288 40.5% 712 175 887 424 47.8% 463 52.2%

1957 1161 71.1% 311 19.1% 160 9.8% 471 28.9% 1632 59 1691 1161 68.7% 530 31.3%

1958 1140 66.3% 393 22.9% 186 10.8% 579 33.7% 1719 48 1671 1140 68.2% 531 31.8%

1959 1248 69.0% 359 19.9% 202 11.2% 561 31.0% 1809 160 1969 1248 63.4% 721 36.6%

1960 1327 73.9% 347 19.3% 122 6.8% 469 26.1% 1796 84 1880 1327 70.6% 553 29.4%

1961 1613 76.3% 393 18.6% 108 5.1% 501 23.7% 2114 465 2579 1613 62.5% 966 37.5%

1962 1635 77.9% 368 17.5% 96 4.6% 464 22.1% 2099 546 2645 1635 61.8% 1010 38.2%

1963 1775 76.0% 382 16.3% 179 7.7% 561 24.0% 2336 507 2843 1775 62.4% 1068 37.6%

1964 1941 74.8% 418 16.1% 236 9.1% 654 25.2% 2595 290 2885 1941 67.3% 944 32.7%

1965 2162 76.2% 447 15.8% 228 8.0% 675 23.8% 2837 251 3088 2162 70.0% 926 30.0%

1966 2230 74.4% 504 16.8% 263 8.8% 767 25.6% 2997 465 3462 2230 64.4% 1232 35.6%

1967 2409 75.7% 492 15.5% 280 8.8% 772 24.3% 3181 332 3513 2409 68.6% 1104 31.4%

1968 2617 75.3% 502 14.4% 358 10.3% 860 24.7% 3477 303 3780 2617 69.2% 1163 30.8%

1969 2499 71.4% 652 18.6% 349 10.0% 1001 28.6% 3500 388 3888 2499 64.3% 1389 35.7%

1970 2286 68.0% 739 22.0% 337 10.0% 1076 32.0% 3362 475 3837 2286 59.6% 1551 40.4%

1971 2176 67.4% 738 22.8% 317 9.8% 1055 32.7% 3231 736 3967 2176 54.8% 1791 45.2%

1972 2136 65.1% 801 24.4% 343 10.5% 1144 34.9% 3280 362 3642 2136 58.6% 1506 41.1%

1973 2000 64.8% 770 24.9% 318 10.3% 1088 35.3% 3088 436 3524 2000 56.7% 1524 43.3%

1974 1821 61.2% 903 30.3% 252 8.5% 1155 38.8% 2976 390 3366 1821 54.1% 1545 45.9%

1975 1581 57.5% 877 31.9% 293 10.7% 1170 42.5% 2751 571 3322 1581 47.6% 1741 52.4%

1976 1347 52.7% 913 35.8% 294 11.5% 1207 47.3% 2554 388 2942 1347 45.8% 1595 54.2%

1977 1052 49.7% 792 37.4% 272 12.9% 1064 50.3% 2116 434 2550 1052 41.2% 1498 58.8%

1978 1067 50.1% 782 36.7% 281 13.2% 1063 49.9% 2130 322 2452 1067 43.5% 1385 56.5%

1979 845 43.2% 773 39.6% 336 17.2% 1109 56.8% 1954 246 2200 845 38.4% 1355 61.6%

1980 715 36.5% 894 45.7% 348 17.8% 1242 63.5% 1957 196 2153 715 33.2% 1438 66.8%

1981 556 33.8% 763 46.3% 328 19.9% 1091 66.2% 1647 217 1864 556 29.8% 1308 70.2%

1982 478 30.2% 782 49.4% 322 20.3% 1104 69.8% 1582 764 2346 478 20.4% 1868 79.6%

1983 462 29.9% 670 33.4% 412 26.7% 1082 70.0% 1544 301 1845 462 25.0% 1383 75.0%

1984 399 27.3% 688 47.1% 373 25.5% 1061 72.7% 1460 210 1670 399 23.9% 1271 76.1%

1985 331 26.3% 600 47.7% 327 26.0% 927 73.7% 1258 180 1438 331 23.0% 1107 77.0%

1986 322 31.0% 481 46.3% 235 22.6% 716 69.0% 1038 192 1230 322 26.2% 908 73.8%

1987 289 28.5% 437 43.0% 289 28.5% 726 71.5% 1015 196 1211 289 23.9% 922 76.1%

1988 254 29.3% 372 42.9% 241 27.8% 613 70.7% 867 138 1005 254 25.3% 751 74.7%

1989 191 28.8% 285 43.0% 187 28.2% 472 71.2% 663 226 889 191 21.5% 698 78.5%

1990 223 31.4% 299 42.2% 187 26.4% 486 68.5% 709 197 906 223 24.6% 683 75.4%

1991 198 28.4% 319 45.8% 180 25.8% 499 71.6% 697 109 806 198 24.6% 608 75.4%

1992 196 28.2% 280 40.3% 218 31.4% 498 71.8% 694 100 794 196 24.7% 598 75.3%

1993 113 33.0% 129 37.7% 100 29.2% 229 66.9% 342 397* 739 113* 15.3% 626* 84.7%*

1994 183 31.2% 221 37.6% 183 31.2% 404 68.8% 587 96 683 183 26.8% 500 59.1%

1995 124 22.7% 240 43.9% 183 33.5% 423 77.3% 547 93 640 124 19.4% 516 73.2%

1996 114 23.5% 169 34.9% 201 41.5% 370 76.4% 484 56 540 114 21.1% 426 78.9%

Total 46624 59.2% 21779 27.7% 10300 13.0% 32079 40.7% 78703 12188 90797 46814 51.4% 45071 49.6%

Source: K Griffith, New Zealand Adoption: History and Practice (Wellington, 1998).

Notes: A limitation of the Table 1 is the unknown data Column F. These consist mainly of adoptions not processed by the Department of Social Welfare. The majority of these are step-parent adoptions by a birth parent of the child and their partner, in which case the Court does not normally refer the case to the Department of Social Welfare, for a Social Worker Report. It also includes a number of Mäori adoptions. In both cases, adoption to strangers is very unlikely. A more accurate picture of total adoption practice can be obtained by adding the unknown data adoptions in Column F to the totals in Column D. This resulting processed data is shown in Columns H and I. The percentages in Columns A, B, C, D are the percentage of total known data adoptions in Column E.

Data source: Columns A, B, C, D, E = Department of Social Welfare Annual Reports – adoptions processed by DSW. Column G = NZ Year Book but commencing 1980 source is Department of Social Welfare Annual Reports – adoption orders issued by Courts. Column F = Difference between E and G. The data is processed into percentages of total known data adoption as in Column E.

* Glitch due to change in statistical year. In 1993 the statistical reporting year changed from a calendar year 1st Jan to 31st Dec to the fiscal year 1st July to 30th June of following year.

TABLE 2: Adult Adoption Information Act statistics

Vetoes cancelled**

or

OBC Vetoes placed Vetoes renewed expired by death

Year issue* Mother Adoptee Father Mother Adoptee Father Mother Adoptee Father

1986 4141 2771 898 61

1987 2771 140 86 2

1988 2285 85 54 0

1989 1967 56 49 0

1990 1878 41 38 0

1991 1803 48 40 1

1992 1709 34 23 3

1993 1806 21 26 1

1994 1928 21 24 0

1995 1832 16 17 0

1996 1977 85 36 2 423 63 3 2 3 0

1997 1696 29 22 1 15 4 0 3 2 1

1998 1442 15 15 1 15 7 0 3 2 0

1999

(below) 653 8 2 0 5 3 0 0 1 0

1999

Jan 78 1 1

Feb 116 2 1

Mar 153 4 1 1

Apr 76 3 1 1

May 126

Jun 104 3

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

* Original birth certificate.

** Onus is on the applicant to show the person is dead. This is therefore artificially low as usually applicant will not know the person’s identity.

Source: Births, Deaths and Marriages, Department of Internal Affairs.

TABLE 3: 1996 Census of Population and Dwellings – Family indicator by number of children in family for families in private dwellings

Family indicator, No One Two Three Four Five

all families children child children children children or more Total

Couple only 354,588 0 0 0 0 0 354,588

Married couple

with children 0 123,564 146,814 71,205 22,767 8,910 373,263

Opposite-sex defacto

couple with children 0 21,651 16,293 6,990 2,556 1,104 48,597

Same-sex defacto

couple with children 0 222 105 42 12 9 396

Not specified/not able

to determine[1]0 1,998 1,356 639 207 111 4,314

Total two parent families 0 147,435 164,568 78,876 25,548 10,134 426,567

One parent family 0 91,437 48,789 18,936 6,186 2,910 168,258

Family not classifiable 69 6 6 3 0 3 87

Total all families 354,657 238,878 213,366 97,815 31,734 13,047 949,497

All cells in this table have been randomly rounded to base 3.

Source: Statistics New Zealand.

[1]The marital status of couples was not always able to be determined. Some people who we classified as being in a parental role and part of a couple, specified that they were non-partnered when asked about their marital status. These and other couples with inconsistent responses have been categorised as ‘Not able to determine’ in the above table.