The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) has published its annual report, “Injuries in New Zealand, Insights from 2024,” offering a comprehensive overview of injury trends, associated costs, and areas requiring focused prevention strategies.
The report confirmed that ACC accepted roughly 2 million injury claims from 1.6 million individuals in 2024.
The total spend on recovery-related services reached nearly $7 billion, including $4.4 billion for rehabilitation and $2.5 billion for income support in the form of weekly compensation.
Over the past 20 years, the cost of injury support has risen significantly. In 2004, total injury-related expenses were just under $1 billion. By 2024, this had increased to more than four times that amount, reflecting both population growth and the increasing complexity of recovery needs.
According to James Whitaker, ACC’s injury prevention leader, while only a small percentage of injuries lead to compensation for time off work, those claims consume a disproportionate share of funding.
“To put it simply, more people are getting injured, and it’s taking longer and costing more for them to recover,” he said.
ACC has segmented injury data into four main categories:
These injuries make up approximately two-thirds of all claims and more than half of total costs.
The most common causes are slips, trips, and falls – accounting for 42% of incidents – followed by injuries related to lifting and manual handling (16%).
Around 10% of accepted claims are workplace-related, but they represent 22% of the associated costs.
Industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, construction, forestry, and fishing are overrepresented in injury costs.
Workers who sustained injuries in 2024 took a combined 5.5 million days off work.
With 4.59 million registered vehicles in New Zealand, road incidents generated around 35,000 claims last year.
Each road-related claim averaged $14,500, far exceeding the average cost of claims in other categories.
Cars and motorcycles featured in the majority of cases, while pedestrian incidents accounted for a smaller share.
Sport and physical activity produced 23% of all claims and incurred a similar percentage of total costs.
Fitness-related injuries now outpace those from traditional contact sports like rugby, with gym-related incidents becoming the most common.
In line with its focus on evidence-based prevention, ACC awarded postgraduate research scholarships to six students in 2024.
One recipient, Merope Griffin, a GP registrar and University of Otago student, is investigating how factors such as rurality and ethnicity impact injury mortality among New Zealanders under age 65.
Her research aims to inform injury response strategies in underserved regions, particularly rural and Māori communities.
Scholarship funding ranged from $7,500 to $15,000 per student and included participants from other major universities, including Massey, AUT, and Victoria.
ACC continues to advocate for behavioural change through its national prevention initiative, “Have a hmmm,” which encourages individuals to reflect on the risks associated with everyday actions.
Whitaker said this approach supports both personal safety and the long-term sustainability of the ACC scheme.
“We want all New Zealanders to get the help and support they need when they’re injured, now and for many generations to come,” he said.
The 2024 report will serve as the first in a planned annual series, with the aim of informing both public awareness and professional practice in injury prevention across New Zealand.
