Causes of death among babies and children under 5 years of age in New Zealand

By broad category, 2022, number of deaths

The following information applies to all values in the table. Year: 2022, Sex: Total, Age group: 00-04
Cause of death	Number of deaths
Chapter 1 Certain infectious and parasitic diseases	7
Chapter 2 Neoplasms	8
Chapter 3 Diseases of blood and blood-forming organs and certain disorders involving the immune mechanism	2
Chapter 4 Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic diseases	3
Chapter 6 Diseases of the nervous system	4
Chapter 9 Diseases of the circulatory system	1
Chapter 10 Diseases of the respiratory system	6
Chapter 11 Diseases of the digestive system	1
Chapter 12 Diseases of the skin and subcutaneous tissue	1
Chapter 16 Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period	164
Chapter 17 Congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities	55
Chapter 18 Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified	50
Chapter 20 External cause of morbidity and mortality	38

For more information

https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/national-collections-and-surveys/collections/mortality-collection

Limitations of the data

The figures reported here are provisional and will be finalised next year.

Inclusions

This dataset includes deaths where COVID was coded as the underlying cause of death. These deaths are coded to the following ICD classification; Chapter 22 Codes for special purposes > U00–U49 Provisional assignment of new diseases of uncertain aetiology or emergency use > U07 Emergency use of U07. The 3-character code U07 can also include vaping-related deaths, though none were reported in 2020, 2021 or 2022.
In 2022 there were 1,937 deaths where COVID was the underlying cause of death. In 2021 there were 16 deaths and in 2020 there were 25 deaths where COVID was the underlying cause of death, as reflected in this web tool.

Data provided by

Ministry of Health

Dataset name

Mortality Collection: ICD Chapter and ICD Subgroup dataset 2022

Webpage:

https://tewhatuora.shinyapps.io/mortality-web-tool/

How to find the data

At URL provided, in the 'ICD Chapter and Subgroup (2013–2022)' tab, under 'Select ICD Chapter(s)' heading, select all variables, and than select data for the first and second variable.
Figure.NZ have converted to Excel format for processing purposes.

Import & extraction details

File as imported: Mortality Collection: ICD Chapter and ICD Subgroup dataset 2022

From the dataset Mortality Collection: ICD Chapter and ICD Subgroup dataset 2022, this data was extracted:

Sheet: Sex Age
Range: G2:G8978
Provided: 8,977 data points

This data forms the table Health - Mortality by broad cause, age group and sex 2013–2022.

Dataset originally released on:

July 31, 2025

About this dataset

The Mortality Collection (MORT) classifies the underlying cause of death for all deaths registered in New Zealand, and all registerable stillbirths (fetal deaths).

Purpose of collection

The Mortality Collection was established to provide data on causes of death for New Zealand’s vital statistics, for public health research, policy formulation, monitoring the effectiveness of health programmes, and cancer survival studies. A dataset of each year’s mortality data is sent to the World Health Organization to be used in international comparisons of mortality statistics.

Method of collection/Data provider

Each month Births, Deaths, and Marriages (BDM) sends National Collections and Reporting electronic death registration and stillbirth registration data. The registration data is matched to Certificates of Causes of Death (HP4720 and HP4721), sent in by funeral directors, and coroners’ reports supplied by the Coronial Services Unit.

Additional information on underlying cause of death is obtained from hospital discharge data in the National Minimum Dataset (NMDS), the New Zealand Cancer Registry (NZCR), the NZ Transport Agency, Water Safety NZ, the Internet, and from writing letters to certifying doctors, coroners, and medical records officers in public hospitals.

Causes of death among babies and children under 5 years of age in New Zealand

By broad category, 2022, number of deaths

About this data

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