The graph illustrates variations in the birth and death rates in New Zealand from the year 1901 to the present day and extrapolating to the year 2101 in the future.
Overall, birth rates were steadily increasing for the majority of the 20th century, then they started to fluctuate for a while and are expected to gradually decrease for the rest of the given period. Death rates, however, had a rising trend for the past 120 years, but they are expected to taper off eventually.
In 1901, newborns were more than twice as many as dead people in New Zealand, with an estimated 20 thousand babies. From this point onwards, birth rates climbed rapidly while experiencing some minor ups and downs, reaching a peak of nearly 65 thousand babies in 1961. In the same period, death rates rose as well, although not at the same pace as birth rates, and they are anticipated to do so until they reach close to 60 thousand dead people by 2061. During the same century, birth rates fluctuated massively leading to the current time, as they reached 50 thousand newborns in 2021, and are expected to be slightly less than that in 2061. From then on, however, the number of newborns each year is going to decline gradually, while that of the dead is going to level off, where they will finish the two-century period at approximately 42 and 58 thousand, respectively.