Injury statistics for work-related claims give information about claims accepted by ACC for work-related injuries.
Key facts
- A total of 226,600 work-related injury claims were made in 2023 (up 1,200 from 2022).
- The incidence rate for claims related to work-related injuries was 86 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) in 2023. This is the lowest rate since the start of the series in 2002.
- The manufacturing; agriculture, forestry, and fishing; and construction industries had the highest incidence rates of work-related injury claims in 2023.
- Trades workers had the highest number of claims by occupation in 2023, with 39,000 claims.
This release contains provisional statistics for work-related claims for injuries in the 2023 calendar year. It also includes final statistics for work-related claims for injuries in the 2022 calendar year, which are updated from last year's published 2022 provisional data.
Overall number of claims
In 2023, a total of 226,600 work-related injury claims were made to Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) or ACC-accredited employers - 1,200 more claims than in 2022.
There were 43,200 work-related injury claims involving entitlement payments in 2023, the same number as in 2022. Work-related injury claims involving entitlement payments generally arise from more serious injuries and include additional payments such as death benefits, loss of earning payments, lump sums, and rehabilitation payments.
The total number of fatal work-related injury claims in 2023 was 54 - down from 81 in 2022. This is the lowest number of fatal claims in a single year since the start of the series in 2002.
Incidence rate of claims
In 2023, the overall incidence rate fell from 88 to 86 claims per 1,000 FTEs over the year, the lowest rate since the start of the series.
Incidence rates are more comparable than absolute numbers over time because they account for the size of the population at risk. As New Zealand's population has grown, the number of injuries has increased, but the declining incidence rate shows claims per 1,000 FTEs are down.
The incidence rate for claims involving entitlement payments was 16 claims per 1,000 FTEs in 2023. This rate has remained relatively stable since 2017.
| Year | "Incidence rate | "Incidence rate |
| 2002 | all claims" | entitlement payment claims" |
| 2003 | 154 | 20 |
| 2004 | 150 | 20 |
| 2005 | 146 | 20 |
| 2006 | 142 | 20 |
| 2007 | 134 | 20 |
| 2008 | 132 | 19 |
| 2009 | 127 | 19 |
| 2010 | 120 | 17 |
| 2011 | 117 | 15 |
| 2012 | 111 | 13 |
| 2013 | 110 | 13 |
| 2014 | 109 | 14 |
| 2015 | 109 | 15 |
| 2016 | 108 | 15 |
| 2017 | 105 | 15 |
| 2018 | 103 | 16 |
| 2019 | 103 | 16 |
| 2020 | 100 | 17 |
| 2021 | 91 | 16 |
| 2022 | 91 | 17 |
| 2023 | 88 | 17 |
Sex
In 2023, the incidence rate for men was 107 claims per 1,000 FTEs, compared with 60 claims per 1,000 FTEs for women.
From 2002 to 2019, the proportions of work-related injury claims made by men and women were converging (as men made fewer claims, while women made more). However, from 2019 onwards these proportions have remained steady. In 2023, 68 percent of all claims (155,000 claims) were made by men, while 31 percent of all claims (71,300 claims) were made by women.
| Year | Male | Female |
| 2002 | 75 | 25 |
| 2003 | 75 | 25 |
| 2004 | 75 | 25 |
| 2005 | 75 | 25 |
| 2006 | 74 | 26 |
| 2007 | 73 | 27 |
| 2008 | 73 | 27 |
| 2009 | 72 | 28 |
| 2010 | 73 | 27 |
| 2011 | 72 | 28 |
| 2012 | 72 | 28 |
| 2013 | 72 | 28 |
| 2014 | 72 | 28 |
| 2015 | 71 | 29 |
| 2016 | 71 | 29 |
| 2017 | 70 | 30 |
| 2018 | 70 | 30 |
| 2019 | 69 | 31 |
| 2020 | 69 | 31 |
| 2021 | 69 | 31 |
| 2022 | 69 | 31 |
| 2023 | 68 | 31 |
Age group
The oldest workers (aged 75 years and over) had the highest incidence rate of claims in 2023, with 133 claims per 1,000 FTEs. However, the small proportion of people working over the age of 75 means they only represent 1 percent of all injury claims.
Workers aged 15 to 24 years had the second highest incidence rate of claims, at 116 claims per 1,000 FTEs. This age group accounted for 16 percent of all injury claims.
| Age group | "Incidence rate | "Incidence rate |
| 15-24 | all claims" | entitlement payment claims" |
| 25-34 | 116 | 18 |
| 35-44 | 86 | 16 |
| 45-54 | 76 | 14 |
| 55-64 | 76 | 15 |
| 65-74 | 86 | 18 |
| 75+ | 96 | 22 |
| Year | "Agriculture | Manufacturing | Construction | Total industry |
| 2017 | forestry | 154 | 159 | 103 |
| 2018 | and fishing" | 158 | 162 | 103 |
| 2019 | 184 | 161 | 157 | 100 |
| 2020 | 190 | 147 | 142 | 91 |
| 2021 | 182 | 164 | 144 | 91 |
| 2022 | 189 | 155 | 135 | 88 |
| 2023 | 174 | 151 | 127 | 86 |
Occupation
Trades workers have had the highest number of claims by occupation since 2007. In 2023, they made 39,000 claims - 800 fewer claims than in 2022.
Plant and machine operators and assemblers had the most claims involving entitlement payments in 2023, with 8,800 claims (20 percent of all entitlement claims), down 300 from 2022.
Note: Incidence rates of claims by occupation are not available for this release, as ACC and the Household Labour Force Survey use different classifications for occupation.
Work-related injury claims - DataInfo+ has more information on incidence rates for injury claims by occupation.
Employment status
In 2023, self-employed people had an incidence rate of 98 work-related injury claims per 1,000 FTEs, compared with 85 claims per 1,000 FTEs for employees. Since the start of the series in 2002, the incidence rate for self-employed people has been consistently higher than that for employees. However, this gap has gradually narrowed over time, as the incidence rate for self-employed people has dropped more quickly than for employees.
Note: Employees include all those working for wages and salaries, as well as employers of others in their own business. The self-employed figures include people classified as self-employed and not employing others. It excludes those working without pay or profit in a family business. This classification corresponds closely to the definitions used for workplace accident insurance.
| Year | "Incidence rate | "Incidence rate |
| 2002 | employee" | self-employed" |
| 2003 | 141 | 251 |
| 2004 | 138 | 239 |
| 2005 | 135 | 224 |
| 2006 | 133 | 214 |
| 2007 | 126 | 198 |
| 2008 | 124 | 196 |
| 2009 | 119 | 184 |
| 2010 | 110 | 202 |
| 2011 | 109 | 184 |
| 2012 | 105 | 156 |
| 2013 | 104 | 151 |
| 2014 | 103 | 168 |
| 2015 | 104 | 154 |
| 2016 | 103 | 151 |
| 2017 | 101 | 132 |
| 2018 | 100 | 122 |
| 2019 | 99 | 132 |
| 2020 | 96 | 132 |
| 2021 | 87 | 114 |
| 2022 | 90 | 106 |
| 2023 | 87 | 101 |
Ethnicity
Workers classified into the 'Other' ethnic group, which includes Middle Eastern, Latin American, African, and other ethnicity categories, had the highest claim rate of 164 claims per 1,000 FTEs in 2023. However, people classified into the 'Other' ethnic category account for a small share of the overall working population, representing only 5 percent of all work-related injury claims.
Pacific workers had the second-highest incidence rate of 99 work-related injury claims per 1,000 FTEs in 2023.
| | "Incidence rate | "Incidence rate |
| European | all claims" | entitlement payment claims" |
| Māori | 67 | 11 |
| Pacific peoples | 74 | 15 |
| Asian | 99 | 16 |
| Other | 54 | 9 |
Note: Ethnicity for people who made claims through ACC-accredited employers is recorded as 'not specified', and therefore is not included.
Type of injury
Similar to 2022, soft-tissue injuries were the most common type of claim in 2023, with 146,500 claims (65 percent of all claims) and 27,300 claims involving entitlement payments (63 percent of all claims involving entitlement payments).
Soft-tissue injuries include ligament, tendon, and muscle injuries in all parts of the body and do not include bone injuries or organ injuries.
More data
Use Aotearoa Data Explorer to view and download injury claims data.
How to use Aotearoa Data Explorer contains video tutorials and a user guide.
Table 1: All claims for work-related injury, by territorial authority, 2002-2022
Table 2: All claims for work-related injury, by district health board, 2002-2022
Table 3: All claims for work-related injury, by territorial authority, 2023 provisional
Table 4: All claims for work-related injury, by district health board, 2023 provisional
Definitions and metadata
Work-related injury claims 2023 - methodology - DataInfo+ provides information on the general methodology used to produce injury statistics - work-related claims.
Work-related injury concepts and definitions - DataInfo+ provides definition of terms and concepts used in injury statistics - work-related claims.
Technical enquiries
Yanyan Li
[email protected]
ISSN 1179-125X
Next release
Injury statistics - work-related claims: 2024 will be released in September 2025.
