Work injury statistics

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Work injury statistics

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

  • 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
$567,720,887
The costs of all active claims

New claims

82,530
in 2026 ytd

Active claims

158,535
in 2026 ytd

Work-related injury claims and costs by year

Year New claims Active claims Cost of active claims
2017 204,888 286,602 $722,901,689
2018 211,371 296,332 $780,106,567
2019 209,938 300,295 $821,813,098
2020 190,074 280,932 $866,264,499
2021 196,746 287,899 $915,517,585
2022 194,450 283,292 $961,751,899
2023 195,455 292,400 $1,116,470,226
2024 180,089 284,240 $1,260,700,128
2025 169,364 271,126 $1,254,610,727
2026 YTD 82,530 158,535 $567,720,887

 

By industry

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By region

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Find out about the work we're involved in to prevent injuries in the workplace:

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.