Births, Deaths and Marriages
Whānautanga, Matenga, Mārenatanga
Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) registers and maintains New Zealand birth, death, marriage, civil union and name change information, and issues certificates and printouts.
False claims about birth certificates
There have been online claims about birth certificates that are not true. New Zealand birth certificates:
- are not linked to bonds or financial institutions
- only have reference numbers on the back of them for internal use by the Department of Internal Affairs - these are not shared with other agencies
- cannot usually be used on their own as proof of identity.
Birth certificates and source documents FAQ (PDF 98KB)
Birth certificates and source documents FAQ accessible alternative (TXT 3KB)
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