Injury statistics – work-related claims: 2021

Injury statistics for work-related claims give information about claims accepted by ACC for work-related injuries. 

Key facts

• A total of 223,300 work-related claims were made in 2021 (up 4,800 from 2020).
• In 2021, the incidence rate of all injury claims was 90 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs).
• The age group with the highest incidence rate of claims in 2021 was the oldest workers (aged 75 and over), with 134 claims per 1,000 FTEs.
• The region with the highest incidence rate of claims in 2021 was Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay, with 140 claims per 1,000 FTEs.
• The industry with the highest incidence rate of claims in 2021 was agriculture, forestry, and fishing, with 172 claims per 1,000 FTEs.

Overall number of claims

In 2021, a total of 223,300 work-related injury claims were made to Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) or ACC-accredited employers – an increase of 4,800 from 2020.

There were 39,000 work-related injury claims involving entitlement payments (ie, more serious claims) in 2021; this was an increase of 1,100 since 2020. Entitlement claims 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 2021 was 54. This is the lowest number of fatal claims in a single year since the series began in 2002.

Incidence rate of claims

In 2021, the incidence rate of all injury claims was 90 claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). This is the second-lowest rate since the start of the series in 2002.

The incidence rate for claims involving entitlement payments was 16 claims per 1,000 FTEs in 2021. This is the same rate as that in 2017, 2018, and 2020.

Sex

The incidence rate for injury claims for male and female workers was 112 claims per 1,000 FTEs and 62 claims per 1,000 FTEs respectively.

The proportion of work-related injury claims made by men has decreased over time, while claims by women have increased, reducing the gap. In 2021, men made 154,100 claims (69 percent of all claims) and women made 69,200 claims (31 percent of all claims). Since 2019, the proportion for men and women remains the same.

Age group

The oldest workers (aged 75 and over) had the highest incidence rate of claims in 2021, with 134 claims per 1,000 FTEs. This is the lowest rate for this age group since the start of the series. However, the small proportion of people working over the age of 75 means they only made up one percent of all injury claims.

The second highest was the 15–24-year-old age group at 128 claims per 1,000 FTEs.

Industry

The agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry had the highest incidence rate of work-related injury claims in 2021, with 172 claims per 1,000 FTEs. This is down from a rate of 188 claims per 1,000 FTEs in 2020, and this is the lowest rate for agriculture, forestry, and fishing industry since the start of the series in 2009.

The construction industry had the highest number of work-related injury claims in 2021, with 38,600 claims (17 percent of all claims, up 2,100 from 2020).

The manufacturing industry had the highest rate of entitlement claims in 2021, with 35 claims per 1,000 FTEs (21 percent of all entitlement claims).

Occupation

Trades workers have had the highest number of claims by occupation since 2007. In 2021, they made 39,500 claims. This was an increase of 1,600 since 2020.

Plant and machine operators and assemblers made the most claims involving entitlement payments in 2021, with 8,100 claims (21 percent of all entitlement claims).

Note: The incidence rates of claims by occupation are not available for this release. ACC and the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) use different classifications for occupation. Thus, meaningful incidence rates cannot be calculated.

Work-related injury claims – DataInfo+ has more information on incidence rates for injury claims by occupation.

Region

The Gisborne/Hawke’s Bay region has had the highest work-related injury claim rate since 2003. In 2021, this region had 140 claims per 1,000 FTEs. This is the second-lowest rate for this region since the start of the series in 2002.

Employment status

In 2021, self-employed people had an incidence rate of 100 work-related injury claims per 1,000 FTEs, compared with 88 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 for employees, with this gap narrowing over time.

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 those 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.

Ethnicity

Workers who did not identify as European, Māori, Pacific peoples, or Asian had the highest claim rate of 181 claims per 1,000 FTEs in 2021. This group includes Middle Eastern, Latin American, African, and other ethnicity categories.

Pacific workers had the second-highest incidence rate of 93 work-related injury claims per 1,000 FTEs in 2021.

Type of injury

Soft-tissue injuries were the most common type of claim made in 2021, with 145,100 claims (65 percent of all claims) and 25,300 claims involving entitlement payments (65 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.

Note: This release contains provisional statistics for work-related claims for injuries in the 2021 calendar year. It also includes final statistics for injuries in the 2020 calendar year, which are updated from last year’s published 2020 provisional data.

More data

Use NZ.Stat to view and download claims data.

Table 1: All claims for work-related injury, by territorial authority, 2002–2020

Table 2: All claims for work-related injury, by district health board, 2002–2020

Table 3: All claims for work-related injury, by territorial authority, 2021 provisional

Table 4: All claims for work-related injury, by district health board, 2021 provisional

Table 5: All claims for work-related injury, by industry and territorial authority, 2009–2021 provisional 

Definitions and metadata

Work-related injury claims 2021 – methodology – DataInfo+ provides information on the general methodology used Definitions and metadata 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.

Media enquiries

Sandi Reily
021 285 9191
media@stats.govt.nz

Technical enquiries

Yanyan Li
info@stats.govt.nz

ISSN 1179-125X

Next release

Injury statistics – work-related claims: 2022 will be released in August 2023.