Australia's mothers and babies 2004

Women who gave birth and births

There were 252,871 women who gave birth in 2004 reported to the NPDC, resulting in a total of 257,205 births. Of these, 1,919 were fetal deaths (Table 2.1). This showed an increase of 280 births (0.1%) from the 256,925 reported in 2003.

There were 255,286 live births in 2004 reported to the NPDC. This was 1,040 more than the 254,246 live births registered in Australia in 2004 (ABS 2005). Reasons for the differences in the national figures on live births between the two collections are being further investigated, but somewhat reflect the different methods and timing of the data collections. The NPDC is an epidemiological dataset collected at birth for the purpose of monitoring pregnancy. In comparison, the birth registration data is a vital statistics collection that relies on reporting by the parents or guardians, with requirements for reporting specified by individual states and territories. The differences between the two collections would be partly due to delays in the registration of, or failure to register, some live births. However, delays in registration would likely be balanced by the late registration of births from the previous year. Table 2.2 shows the number of live births in the two collections by state and territory, and year of occurrence of the birth. The impact of the timing of registering births is demonstrated in this table, but suggests that even after a one year catch-up, the NPDC is a more timely estimate of the number of live births in Australia. Data were not available for births that occurred in 2004 but were registered in 2005. Therefore, data are presented for 2000 to 2003 to allow for inclusion of births that occurred late in 2003 and were registered in 2004 and to also include late registrations for births in earlier years. In these years the NPDC has recorded more live births than were registered, overall and in most states and territories. Percentage differences show 2.4% more live births reported to the NPDC for births in 2000, increasing to a difference of 4.9% for births in 2003, the latest year of comparable data on births available (Table 2.2). The majority of births are registered in the year of occurrence. For example, of births in 2000, 87.5% were registered in that year, 10.6% were registered in 2001, 0.8% in 2002, and 0.5% were registered in each of 2003 and 2004.

Note: ABS data based on year of birth and state/territory of registration. Sources: National Perinatal Data Collection; ABS births database 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004.