( dpa ) - New Zealand is experiencing a baby boom with 64,040 births registered last year, the biggest number since 1963, according to official figures released on Monday.
The fertility rate in the country of 4.2 million is now 2.2 births per woman, the highest since 1990, but still well down on the peak of 4.3 births per mother recorded in 1961, Statistics New Zealand reported.
Births exceeded deaths by 35,520 in 2007, the country's biggest natural increase of population in 35 years.
A newborn girl today can expect to live 81.9 years and a boy 77.9 years, said government statistician Geoff Bascand.