Sex distribution
There are slightly more males aged 12 to 24 living in New Zealand than females. However, this pattern progressively reverses with age.
From age 20 onwards there are slightly more females than males. In part, this may be due to the higher mortality rate among young men – at ages 20 to 24 young men are twice as likely to die as young women (more information on youth mortality rates is presented here).
Sex distribution of the youth population, by single year of age, 2006
Source: Statistics New Zealand, Census
There is no reliable data on the number of intersex or transgender young people in New Zealand. United States research estimates that the frequency of intersex conditions may be as high as 2 percent of live births, depending on the definition of intersex used.(1)
Notes
1. For more information about the frequency of intersex conditions, see Blackless, M., Charuvastra, A., Derryck, A., Fausto-Sterling, A., Lauzanne, K., Lee, E. (2000) “How Sexually Dimorphic Are We? Review and Synthesis.” American Journal of Human Biology, 12: 151-166 (see link at right). For a discussion of the challenges in gathering data about the transgender population, see relevant references in the Methodology report .
