NSW REGISTRY OF BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES, BIRTHS COLLECTION
INTRODUCTION
1 The Births Collection is administered by the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages. It records the details of births in NSW.
2 This dataset is the collection used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in the compilation of Births, Australia (cat. no. 3301.0) and is also used in the calculation of official population estimates. Registration of a birth is required by law, and must be completed for a birth certificate to be issued (a necessary document for establishing identity when enrolling in educational institutions, opening bank accounts, applying for passports, etc.).
3 The authority to collect this information is legislated in the Births, Deaths & Marriages Registration Act 1995.
4 Information is collected on the details of the birth, the mother and father, their marriage, previous children from this relationship, and children of the mother from other relationships.
5 In this product, data are presented on births by age of mother and fertility rates. Fertility rates are calculated using preliminary estimated resident population by age and sex at 30 June 2006 based on results of the 2006 Census of Population and Housing.
SCOPE
6 The scope of this collection is births to women who usually reside in NSW, and births to women who were overseas residents but were in NSW at the time of birth and thus registered the birth in NSW.
7 The coverage of this collection is all births registered by at least one parent. Some births are not registered, but the number is small.
REFERENCE PERIOD
8 Births data are available by calendar year. Data in this product are for 2006.
KEY DATA ITEMS
9 The following key data items from the Births collection relate to data used in this product.
10 The following key data items relate to the data used in this product.
11 Birth: The delivery of a child, irrespective of the duration of pregnancy, who, after being born, breathes or shows any evidence of life such as heartbeat.
12 Local Government Area (LGA) of usual residence: The LGA where the mother usually resided for the majority of her pregnancy.
13 Total fertility rate (TFR): The sum of age-specific fertility rates (live births at each age of mother per female population of that age). The TFR represents the number of children a female would bear during her lifetime if she experienced current age-specific fertility rates at each age of her reproductive life.
GEOGRAPHY
14 The 2004 Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) (cat. no. 1216.0) is used in the coding of this collection. Data are available by Statistical Local Area (SLA) of usual residence. Within this report, SLA data have been aggregated to Local Government Area.
COLLECTION METHODOLOGY
15 State and territory Registrars of Births, Deaths and Marriages are responsible for registration of births. Registrations are based on information from a form completed by a parent of the child.
16 This registration form is the basis of the data Registrars provide to the ABS for compilation of aggregate statistics in Births, Australia (cat. 3301.0). Most data items are collected in all states and territories, and therefore national level statistics are available for most characteristics. Some states collect additional information.
ACCURACY
17 There is usually an interval between the occurrence and registration of a birth, and as a result of delay in registration, some births occurring in a year are not registered until the following year, or even later. This delay can be caused either by the parents or the Registrar.
18 For births data, cell values less than three have been suppressed to protect confidentiality. Other cells may be suppressed to provide consequential confidentiality.
PUBLISHED DATA
19 The publication, Births, Australia (cat. no. 3301.0) is released around November each year.
ABS DATA AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
20 As well as the statistics included in this and related publications, the ABS may have other relevant data available on request. For further information, please contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.
RELATED WEB SITES
21 Further information can be found at the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths & Marriages web site: www.bdm.nsw.gov.au.
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