Fertility

Requirements

Number of children born alive

The information required is the number of children ever born alive to women, resident in New Zealand, and aged 15 years or older.

The information may be collected via a self–completed or interviewer-administered questionnaire or by a telephone interview.

The children born alive questionnaire module must clearly:

• state that only women should answer the question
• state that only live births are included (that is, foetal deaths and stillborn children are excluded)
• state that stepchildren and adopted children are excluded.

It has also been customary in census to allow respondents the opportunity to object to answering the question.

Object to answering

Respondents were given the option to object to answering the number of children born alive question on the census form. Therefore, provisions may be made to solicit an ‘object to answering’ response by individual surveys, if required. The following provide guidelines to do so for specific types of surveys:

• Self-administered surveys (such as the Census of Population and Dwellings) may contain a category box with the descriptor ‘object to answering’.
• Interviewer–administered surveys that use a showcard to aid respondents in answering may also include an ‘object to answering’ category that can be selected by respondents.
• Interviewer–administered surveys such as telephone surveys or interviews that do not include the use of a showcard may explain to the respondent that they have the right to object to answering before they are asked to give the number of children they have given birth to.

Example

The questionnaire module shown below is an example of a questionnaire module that meets the requirements for information on children born alive documented in this standard. Other questionnaire modules may vary in format but should conform to the requirements contained in this standard.