More than half of Tauranga City driver's licence holders would donate an organ after death, according to the latest figures from NZ Transport Agency.

Motorist's willingness to tick the yes box to donation puts Tauranga in the top New Zealand cities for the most number of organ donors.

More than half of Tauranga driver licence holders would donate an organ.

A total of 57 per cent, or 52,916 of the total 92,785 Tauranga motorists, would donate an organ.

While in the Western Bay of Plenty a total of 56.47 percent, or 19,999, of 35,412 licence holders also give consent.

Tauranga motorists make up 3.01 per cent of the national driving population that indicated they would consent.

An NZTA spokeswoman says the data is based on the number of current licence holders at June 29, 2014, but does not give a complete picture as a small percentage of licence holders cannot be regionalised due to an overseas or unrecognised address recorded on the driver licence register.

Only 115 of the 3,326,249 licence holders in NZ do not have a donor status recorded on their driver licence record.

The figures rank Tauranga third among the main centres, behind Dunedin's 59.12 per cent and Wellington's 62 per cent, but ahead of Christchurch, 56.8 per cent, Hamilton, 50.8 per cent, and Auckland, 49 per cent.

Unlike some countries, New Zealand does not have an organ donor registry; instead, it asks people to indicate a preference when they gain or renew their licence.

The spokeswoman says it is important to note that having organ donor recorded on the licence is only an "indication" of the licence holder's wish.

'When considering the use of a person's organs, the wishes of the next-of-kin will always be considered by the medical professional.”

Organ donation is only undertaken from patient's who die while in a hospital's Intensive Care Unit, and does not apply to people who die of other means outside the hospital.

Organ Donation New Zealand communications advisor Melanie Stevenson admits it is a common misconception that, if someone died in a car crash, they could donate their organs. This would only happen if the person involved suffered a brain haemorrhage or swelling and had no chance of recovery.

'If someone dies on the side of the road they can't donate their organs - you have to be in an intensive care unit on a ventilator and have fatal brain damage,” says Melanie.

'But there is not a more popular one [organ donated] because it depends of the person and what sort of trauma they have had or what sort of condition their organs are in. And it also depends on what the family consent to.”

In a 2013 annual report from Organ Donation NZ, clinical director Stephen Streat says 36 organ donors died while in 12 ICUs in NZ last year, who had an average age of 47. Twenty six died from stroke

The organs retrieved from the organ donors include; kidneys, hearts, lungs and corneas. In total there were 61 kidneys, nine hearts, 19 lungs, 24 livers, 17 corneas, 14 heart valves, three skin grafts and one pancreas.

Stephen says 54 per cent of those donating organs also donated tissues – excluding those who donated tissues only. Tissue donations are specific to eyes, heart valves and skin.

Of the tissue donations one was performed at Tauranga Hospital and another at Rotorua Hospital. Nationwide there were 29 skin donations, 29 heart valves and 173 eyes were transplanted.

There were 57 tissue-only donors facilitated by ODNZ in 2013 compared to 37 in 2012.