Not all babies exposed to alcohol before birth will have FASD. More research is coming out regularly about the many complex factors which, combined with prenatal alcohol consumption, can lead to FASD. 

The Ministry of Health / Manatū Hauora Aotearoa say that between 3%–5% of live births each year have FASD. 

Recent (2026) research by FASD-CAN, which reviewed all data currently available without doing a full prevalence study, has set the figure at 2-5%.