Work injury statistics

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Work injury statistics

Find statistics on ACC claims for injuries that happened at work.

The 2026 YTD data covers the period from 1 January 2026 to 30 September 2026.

  • Work-related injury claims and costs by year
  • New work-related claims by industry and by region
  • Caveats to this data
2026 ytd injury cost
$866,141,034
The costs of all active claims

New claims

125,114
in 2026 ytd

Active claims

212,015
in 2026 ytd

Work-related injury claims and costs by year

Year New claims Active claims Cost of active claims
2017 204,901 286,604 $722,819,359
2018 211,390 296,336 $780,017,193
2019 209,967 300,306 $821,764,394
2020 190,108 280,936 $866,172,758
2021 196,775 287,906 $915,382,359
2022 194,465 283,301 $961,595,550
2023 195,474 292,405 $1,116,269,368
2024 180,083 284,228 $1,260,284,604
2025 169,400 271,144 $1,254,075,345
2026 YTD 125,114 212,015 $866,141,034

 

By industry

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By region

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Keeping you healthy and safe at work

  • Claims are included where the 'at work indicator' is equal to 'Y' or the claim is funded by the work account.
  • 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.
  • Industry is the classification unit of the employer the claim is attributed to. Note that this is the business activity of the employer.
  • Some industries have higher proportions of accredited employer claims than other. Caution should be taken comparing between industries when accredited employer claims are excluded.
  • If the employer ID is unknown, then the industry has been listed as 'Unknown.
  • Region is the location of the accident and may not be where the claimant resided or sought treatment.
  • 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.