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.
Delays to some BDM services:
The Department of Internal Affairs currently has reduced staffing capacity due to COVID-19. There are processing delays to some Births, Deaths and Marriages (BDM) products and services.
False claims about birth certificates:
There have been false online claims about birth certificates. New Zealand birth certificates:
- are not linked to bonds or financial institutions
- only have reference numbers on the back 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 (TXT 3KB)
Services BDM helps provide
Most popular BDM forms
Utility links and page information
Last updated