Title of Article in Title Case: Time period (if part of title)l

Late birth registrations

Part of the series: Vitals Articles

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This paper was prepared by the Population Statistics unit of Statistics New Zealand.

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Late birth registrations

if required

Late birth registrations Background This his article examines the characteristics of births registered ‘late’ in the period July 2004–December 2004 2009, ass well as providing some earlier historical background on late birth registration in New Zealand. Zealand ‘Late’ registrations or ‘late births’ are those registrations judged to be filed too long after the birth occurred to be registered in the normal manner and are currently defined by the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995 as births registered more than two years after the birth. The Act requires the parents of any child born in New Zealand to register the birth as soon as is “reasonably sonably practicable” after the birth. This is deemed by the Registrar-General Registrar General as generally being within two months of the birth, but a registrar egistrar can register a child up to two years after their birth. After two years, the birth can only be registered by the th Registrar-General. Currently, Statistics New Zealand’s Zealand standard practice is to exclude late registrations from most published birth statistics. In the early 1970s, 1970s when this practice was adopted,, late birth registrations tended to be births that had occurred urred a considerable con time earlier. Given that birth statistics were (and still are) generally published by date of registration rather than date of birth, birth the decision to exclude the late registrations was made, because “including these registrations with live birth figures … [had] … tended towards a slight distortion of birth statistics for individual years.” (Department of Statistics, 1972). It is important for Statistics NZ to monitor late registrations, as births data is a key input into demographic measures such as population estimates and fertility rates. When the level or nature of late registration changes, Statistics NZ needs to evaluate the impact of continuing to exclude late registrations from standard andard outputs of births data, and assess whether existing approaches of adjusting (or not adjusting) other demographic measures are still appropriate.

Legislation The legislation relating to the late registration of births has changed over time. Birth registration gistration was introduced in 1848 in New Zealand, but did not become compulsory until 1859. 1859 This was only for the non-Mäori non Mäori population. Registration of Mäori births became compulsory in 1913, but registration of Mäori births was problematic, particularly in in the more rural and remote parts of the country. Mäori births were largely under-registered under registered until 1936 (Statistics New Zealand, 2006). Initially, births could not be registered more than six months after the birth occurred (and a fee was charged if the registration gistration was more than 42 days after the birth). From 1876, registrations after six months were allowed within one month of a parent being convicted for nonnon-registration. Registration ‘amnesties’ were also held in some years, years with the first one beginning in 1882. 1882 During the amnesty any unregistered births that had occurred within a specified time-frame (usually usually more than 12 months before the passing of the relevant amendment Act) could be registered, even though the six-month limit had already passed (Waikato Waikato Times, Times 1882; the he Registration of Births Extension 1889; the Registration of Births and Deaths Amendment 1892). From 1925 the e Births and Deaths Registration Act 1924 allowed the Registrar-General Registrar to register a birth at any time after the ordinary time t limit (then still six months), but these ‘late late’ births were kept in a separate register. This Act took effect from 1 April 1925 and also allowed for the registration of any unregistered births that had occurred before this date. The 1924 Act was superseded by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1951, 1951 and from 1952 only births registered more than two years after the birth had to be kept in a separate register and registered

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by the Registrar-General. Although a fee applied after two months, and the Registrar-General had to 'authorise' registrations that took place between six months and two years after the birth, only the births from the separate register are considered to be 'late registrations'. Following the passing of the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995, there are currently no fees for registration, but the Registrar-General is still the only person who can register births later than two years after the birth. Late registrations are sometimes known as ‘section 16’ (or ‘section 24’ or ‘section 14’) registrations, named after the section from the 1995 Act (or 1924 or 1951 Acts, respectively) that allowed the Registrar-General to register births after the ordinary time limit.

Unregistered births In addition to the requirement for the parents to register their child’s birth, there is also a requirement for the hospital (or the doctor or midwife present at the birth) to notify a registrar of the birth within five days of the child being born. When the birth is subsequently registered, information from the birth registration is matched with the birth notification. The Department of Internal Affairs follows up on any births that are notified but not registered. Currently a reminder letter is sent to parents 28 days after the birth and, if the birth still remains unregistered, a second letter is sent after 60 days. Despite these processes, births may remain unregistered (and subsequently be registered late) for a variety of reasons. The Department of Internal Affairs may have difficulty contacting the parents if they move from the address originally supplied on the notification form. In some cases, the birth of the child may even be a trigger to move if existing living arrangements are no longer suitable. Parents who do receive the reminders may delay registering the birth for various reasons, including: uncertainty over details required for the registration form (for example, they may not yet have chosen a name for the newborn child, or the mother may have difficulty providing the father’s details), the cost of a birth certificate (although registration is free, parents may wish to order a birth certificate at the same time and wait until they can afford this), or simply not seeing birth registration as a priority at a potentially stressful and busy time.

Late registrations 1925–83 The number of late registrations of live births is available for each year from 1925 to 1983. (Although the Department of Statistics stopped including late registrations in most tables of births data in its Vital Statistics publication after 1970, the total number of registrations (late and 'on-time' registrations combined) continued to be published until 1983. Statistics NZ later stopped regular collection of late registration data and did not resume this until July 2004.) From 1925 to 1961, there were, on average, about 80 late registrations of non-Mäori live births per year (figure 1). (Separate counts of late registrations were not published for Mäori until 1962, when the separate Mäori birth register was abolished.) Late registrations for the total population increased from the early 1960s, averaging 160 per year in 1962–69, 240 per year in the 1970s, and 390 per year in 1980–83. Late registrations as a proportion of all registrations of live births increased from 0.2 percent in 1962 to a peak of 1.0 percent in 1982.

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Figure 1

Late birth registrations 1925–83 Births 500 Total

Māori

Non-Māori

400

300

200

100

0 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73 75 77 79 81 83 Year of registration Note: Separate Māori and non-Māori figures are not available after 1977. Source: Statistics New Zealand

The increase in late registrations is likely to have been partly due to the growing need for a birth certificate to function in society. In Little Histories: Reflections on the keeping of New Zealand’s registers of births, deaths & marriages, Megan Hutching (2007) states that there were “great increases in requests for copies of birth … certificates [from the 1970s] because these now needed to be produced when applying for a driver licence or the national superannuation scheme.” If the birth record could not be found, the birth had to be registered ‘late’ before a birth certificate could be supplied. The increase in late registrations appears to be largely driven by increases in Mäori late registrations, reflecting that Mäori births were more likely to remain unregistered, historically. Non-Mäori late registrations remained stable at around 80 per year until 1977 (figures are not available after this year). Information about other characteristics of the late registrations in 1925–83 is limited.

July 2004–December 2009 Since July 2004, the Department of Internal Affairs has supplied Statistics NZ with records for late birth registrations together with the ‘on-time’ birth registrations (that is, births registered within two years of the birth). From July 2004 to December 2009, a total of 4,256 live births were registered late to mothers resident in New Zealand. This is an average of about 770 per year or around 1 percent of all live births registered within this period. It may be worth noting here that determining the proportion of births registered late by year of birth (rather than registration) is not straightforward, given the short period of data currently available and the time delay between a birth and subsequent late registration (see next section for more on this lag). As figure 2 shows, in the period July 2004–December 2009 the highest number of late registrations was for the year of birth 2002 with the numbers declining in subsequent years. This does not indicate that more of the births that occurred in 2002 were registered late; instead, the lower numbers of late births for more recent years reflect that less time has passed since these years and some births are still to be

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registered. Similarly, births that occurred before July 2002 and had already been registered late before July 2004 are not included in this data. Assuming that most of the births that occurred in 2003 had been registered by the end of 2009, just over 1 percent of babies born in 2003 were registered late.

Figure 2

Late registrations by year of birth July 2004–December 2009 1,000

Births

800

600

400

200

0 before 40– 80– 90 1940 79 89

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

00

01

02

03

04

05

06

07

Year of birth Source: Statistics New Zealand

Lag between date of birth and date of registration Statistics NZ records from the early 1970s indicate that many late registrations around this time were very late (that is, registrations of adults rather than children). In contrast, most late registrations in July 2004–December 2009 were of children. In over half of the late registrations in this period, the birth was registered before the child’s fourth birthday and for about ninetenths the registration took place before the child’s eighth birthday. Figure 3 shows late registrations by months since birth (the age of the child in months). The number of late registrations generally decreases with age, with a jump in registrations around the child’s fifth birthday (the 60th month after the birth). Many of these registrations were probably triggered by the need to provide a birth certificate for school enrolment.

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Figure 3

Late registrations by months since birth Children aged under 8 years at the time of registration July 2004–December 2009

Births 250

200

150

100

50

0 24

36

48

60

72

84

96

Months since birth Source: Statistics New Zealand

It is reasonable to expect that the number of late registrations of adults would have reduced over time. It is unlikely someone born in the last few decades would have reached adulthood without requiring a birth certificate at some point during their childhood (for example, to enrol in school, possibly even to enrol in kindergarten or join a sports team, or, in some cases, for the parent to claim the child as a dependant when applying for a benefit). Furthermore, those born earlier than this who had not had their birth registered as a baby or child would most likely have required a birth certificate by now as proof of age or identity (for example, to open a bank account, apply for a passport, or obtain an IRD number). The shift in late registrations from being mainly registrations of adults to mainly children is also likely to have been partly driven by the universal family benefit being abolished in 1991. Since 1946, the family benefit had been paid when a birth certificate was provided, irrespective of family income or property. This would have been a key financial incentive for parents to register births promptly. When the family benefit was first introduced there was a sudden increase in Mäori birth registrations (Statistics NZ, 2006). Although late registration data is not available for the 1990s, figure 4 shows a deterioration in the timeliness of on-time birth registrations from the early 1990s. During the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, on average 9 percent of the on-time birth registrations each year were registrations of babies born prior to the year of registration. Most of these (about 7 of the 9 percent) were born in December of the previous year, while less than 2 percent were born in November of the previous year and only 0.2 percent were born earlier than this. Although the proportion that occurred before November of the previous year had been gradually increasing from the 1950s, there was a much more rapid increase from the early 1990s (when the universal family benefit was abolished).

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Figure 4

Distribution of births that occurred earlier than the year of registration By month of birth 1951–2009 Percent 8

6

4

2

0 51 53 55 57 59 61 63 65 67 69 71 73 75 77 79 81 83 85 87 89 91 93 95 97 99 01 03 05 07 09 Year of registration Proportion born in December of previous year Proportion born in November of previous year Proportion born earlier than November of previous year Source: Statistics New Zealand

Other factors would also have influenced the speed at which births were registered during this period. The Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Act 1995 removed the fee and other requirements that applied when registering a birth more than two months after the date of birth. The move from registration at local offices to a centralised system in Wellington in 1998 meant reminder notices were not sent to parents who did not register their child’s birth during the transition period. Reminders were sent instead in 1999. Also, legislation changes in 2009 allowed the Department of Internal Affairs to use address information from government agencies’ administrative records in order to send out reminders, but also required both parents to sign the birth registration form except in certain circumstances.

Characteristics of late registrations July 2004–December 2009 As information about other characteristics of the late registrations in 1925–83 is limited, the remainder of this article compares the characteristics of late registrations in July 2004–December 2009 with on-time registrations.

Mother’s ethnicity As in the past, a significant proportion of the late births in July 2004–December 2009 were registered to Mäori women. About two-thirds (68 percent) of mothers registering births late were Mäori (with 53 percent recording Mäori as their only ethnic group and the remaining 15 percent recording Mäori as one of multiple ethnicities). In contrast, the proportion of on-time registrations of births to Mäori mothers in the same period was less than one-quarter (23 percent).

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There were also proportionately more births to Pacific mothers among the late registrations (17 percent), compared with on-time registrations (12 percent) and correspondingly fewer to mothers of European or Asian ethnicity. Less than one-third (31 percent) of mothers registering births late were European compared with about two-thirds (67 percent) of mothers registering births on time. Just 1 percent of late registrations were to Asian mothers compared with 10 percent of on-time registrations.

Mother’s age Mothers registering late births tend to be younger than mothers overall (figure 5). Seventy-three percent of mothers registering late births were aged under 30 years (at the time of the birth), compared with about half of mothers registering births on time (based on registrations from July 2004 to December 2009). Figure 5

Age distribution of mothers Late and on-time registrations July 2004–December 2009 8

Percent Late registrations

On-time registrations

6

4

2

0 Under 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 4445+ 15 Age (years) Source: Statistics New Zealand

The younger age structure of mothers registering births late is not only due to the relatively high proportion of Mäori mothers (who tend to be younger) in the late registrations. Mothers of European ethnicity who registered births late in July 2004–December 2009 had a median age of 26 years, five years less than the median age of European mothers registering births on time in the same period. Fortyfour percent of the European mothers who registered their child’s birth late were under 25 years at the time the baby was born, compared with 21 percent of European mothers who registered their child’s birth on time. Pacific mothers who registered births late also had a median age of 26 years, just under two years younger than Pacific mothers registering births on time, while the median age of Mäori mothers registering births late was 25 years, slightly less than the median age of Mäori mothers registering births on time.

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Figures 6 and 7

Age distribution of Māori mothers

Age distribution of European mothers

Late and on-time registrations

Late and on-time registrations

July 2004–December 2009

July 2004–December 2009

Percent

Percent

40

40

30

30

20

20

10

10

0

0

Under 15–19 20–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 40–44 15

45+

Under 15–19 20–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 40–44 15

Age group (years) Late registrations Source: Statistics New Zealand

45+

Age group (years)

On-time registrations

Late registrations

On-time registrations

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Mother’s residence Nationally, just over 1 percent of live births registered in July 2004–December 2009 were late registrations. However, the proportion of late births varied by region (figure 8). In part this reflects the different ethnic structures of the regional populations. The five regions with the highest proportions of late registrations (Gisborne, Northland, Hawke’s Bay, Bay of Plenty, and Waikato) also had the highest proportions of births to Mäori mothers in the period.

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Figure 8

Proportion of births registered late By region June 2004–December 2009 Region Northland Auckland Waikato Bay of Plenty Gisborne Hawke's Bay Taranaki Manawatu-Wanganui Wellington Tasman Nelson Marlborough West Coast Canterbury Otago Southland 0

1

2

3

4

Percent

Source: Statistics New Zealand

Previous births Late registered births are more likely than births registered on time to be third or subsequent births. In July 2004–December 2009, 32 percent of late birth registrations were to mothers who had two or more previous children, compared with 18 percent of births registered on time. This is partly due to the higher proportion of Mäori and Pacific births in the late registrations as mothers in these ethnic groups are more likely to have larger families. However, it also appears to be a characteristic of births that are registered late, with Mäori, European, and Pacific mothers all having higher proportions of births with two, three, and four or more previous children in the late registrations compared with ontime registrations (table 1).

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Table 1

Distribution of live births by previous births and ethnicity of mother Late and on-time registrations July 2004–December 2009 Previous births (1) 2 3 Percent

Birth registrations

0

Late registrations

46

21

15

On-time registrations

52

30

11

Late registrations

46

20

15

On-time registrations

55

24

11

Late registrations

50

24

13

On-time registrations

53

32

11

Late registrations

41

21

17

On-time registrations

48

22

14

1

4+

Total

9

9

100

4

3

100

9

10

100

5

5

100

8

5

100

3

1

100

10

10

100

8

9

100

All ethnic groups

Māori

European

Pacific

1. Based on children of the current relationship only. Source: Statistics New Zealand

Impact on population statistics It is important for Statistics NZ to monitor late registrations, as births data is a key input into demographic measures such as population estimates and fertility rates. Statistics NZ’s current practice is to exclude late registrations from published birth statistics and also from the number of births used to derive published fertility rates and other demographic rates, such as infant mortality rates. However, allowances are made for late registration in deriving some other demographic measures, including the 2006-base population estimates from 2006 onwards and population projections produced since 2006. Generally, adjustment would be undertaken where it is practical and where there may be cumulative effects of slight discrepancies (for example in population estimates, population projections, and cohort series). However, it is not normal practice to adjust series used for trend analysis, where ongoing and detailed revisions would be required and no cumulative processes occur (such as fertility rates and other period measures). When the decision to exclude late registrations was made in the early 1970s, late registrations tended to be births that had occurred a considerable time earlier and new births were generally registered very promptly. As discussed earlier, there has since been a significant shift in the lag between birth and registration. Over half of late registrations in July 2004–December 2009 were registrations of children aged 2–4 years, and almost all were children aged under 10 years at the time of registration. While this means that the level of births is understated in births data and derived rates, the impact is currently small. In addition, Statistics NZ does not have detailed data on late registrations before July 2004. Generally, Statistics NZ publishes births data by date of registration rather than date of birth. If outputs were revised to include the late registrations in the period they were registered, this would imply a larger rate of change in births mid-2004 that would not reflect actual trends. Table 2 illustrates this,

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showing the total fertility rate for the total and Mäori populations from 2001–09, with late registrations excluded for the whole period and also with late registrations included from July 2004 only.

Table 2

Total fertility rate

(1)

Mäori and total population 2001–09 2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2.64

2.50

2.60

2.70

2.67

2.74

2.94

2.95

2.80

2.64

2.50

2.60

2.74

2.78

2.86

3.05

3.06

2.88

Excluding late registrations

1.97

1.89

1.93

1.98

1.97

2.01

2.17

2.18

2.12

Including late registrations from July 2004(2)

1.97

1.89

1.93

2.00

1.99

2.04

2.20

2.21

2.13

Mäori m other Excluding late registrations Including late registrations from July

2004(2)

Total population

1. The average number of live births that a w oman w ould have during her life if she experienced the age-specific fertility rates of a given period (usually a year). It excludes the effect of mortality. 2. Late registrations have been incorporated based on the year the birth w as registered (rather than w hen it occurred). They are only included from July 2004 as data is not available before this date. Source: Statistics New Zealand

The differences in the total fertility rate, including and excluding late registrations, are small, even for the Mäori population where the understatement of births by excluding late registrations is greater (late births to Mäori mothers were around 4 percent of all birth registrations to Mäori mothers in July 2004– December 2009). Users of births data and fertility rates should be aware of the exclusion of late registrations and also keep in mind that the understatement in the level of births will be greater for groups that are more likely to register births late, for example, Mäori and Pacific mothers and younger mothers. Statistics NZ will continue to monitor the level and nature of late registrations as more data becomes available and review its approach as necessary.

Data sources Department of Statistics (1931). Vital Statistics of New Zealand, 1930. Wellington. Department of Statistics (1984). Vital Statistics, 1983. Wellington. Births dataset: 1926–2009 [Data file]. Wellington: Statistics New Zealand.

References Births and Deaths Registration Act 1951. Available from http://legislation.knowledgebasket.co.nz/gpacts/actlists.html. Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 1995. Available from www.legislation.govt.nz. Department of Statistics (1972). Vital Statistics, 1971. Wellington. Hutching, M (2007). Little Histories: Reflections on the keeping of New Zealand’s registers of births, deaths & marriages. Retrieved 11 June 2010. Available from www.dia.govt.nz. Registration of Births and Deaths Amendment 1892. Available from http://legislation.knowledgebasket.co.nz/shattering_statutes/map_r.html.

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Registration of Births Extension 1889. Available from http://legislation.knowledgebasket.co.nz/shattering_statutes/map_r.html. Statistics New Zealand (2006). A history of survival in New Zealand: Cohort life tables: 1876–2004. Wellington. The Waikato Times and Thames Valley Gazette (1882, 9 November). Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1,615, Page 2. Available from http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz.

Further information on the historical legislation relating to the registration of births was provided by the Births, Deaths and Marriages division of the Department of Internal Affairs.

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