Sport and recreation injury statistics
Find statistics on injury claims for injuries that happened while playing sport.
The 2026 YTD data covers the period from 1 January 2026 to 30 September 2026.
- 2026 ytd injury costs
- 2026 ytd new and active claims
- Sports claims and costs by year
- New sport injury claims by common team sports and individual sports
- Regional breakdown of sports claims
- Caveats to this data
2026 ytd injury cost
$782,681,918
The costs of all active claims in 2026 ytd
New claims
408,005
in 2026 ytd
Active claims
506,301
in 2026 ytd
Sports claims and costs by year
| Year | New claims | Active claims | Cost of active claims |
| 2017 | 484,820 | 554,507 | $569,283,450 |
| 2018 | 467,442 | 546,046 | $611,122,035 |
| 2019 | 455,276 | 537,078 | $619,828,740 |
| 2020 | 402,536 | 485,859 | $631,953,228 |
| 2021 | 418,013 | 507,256 | $693,191,264 |
| 2022 | 421,474 | 501,773 | $730,354,925 |
| 2023 | 452,714 | 539,628 | $837,796,265 |
| 2024 | 486,802 | 584,744 | $1,005,924,806 |
| 2025 | 496,260 | 602,361 | $1,076,994,983 |
| 2026 ytd | 408,005 | 506,301 | $782,681,918 |
Regional breakdown of sports claims
Did you know – Canterbury has the second-highest number of claims relating to rugby?
More information
Find out about the work we're involved in to prevent injuries while playing sport:
- This data includes accepted sport-related injury claims managed by ACC.
- New claims are counted where a claim is lodged with ACC within the specified period. A claim may be lodged immediately following an accident or at any later stage.
- Active claims are counted where the claim received at least one payment within the specified period. A claim was not necessarily lodged or had the accident occur within this period.
- A claim may be active in more than one calendar year and will be counted once in each relevant year in which at least one payment was made.
- Active Costs are the GST exclusive cost of payments made for claims that were active in the specified period.
- The cost of public hospital services during the acute stage of an injury is covered under the Public Health Acute Services (PHAS) regulations.
- These services are bulk-funded and not attributed to individual claims, so cannot be included in these data.
- The calendar year in which the service was paid may differ to the calendar year in which the service was provided.
- All included claims are accepted for cover
- Data are displayed in calendar years. i.e. 1 January to 31 December
- Claims managed by an accredited employer have been excluded.
- Results are based on data available at the time of extraction and may vary if rerun later.