What happened between 2021 and 2022 that cut workplace injuries among Kiwis over 90 in half?

The data is stark. In 2021, 29,499 New Zealanders aged 90 and over suffered fatal or serious workplace injuries. The following year, that figure dropped to 12,597. By 2024, it had fallen further to 12,225, the lowest level in 19 years (Source: Stats NZ / ACC, fatal-serious-injuries).

That's not a marginal shift. That's a 58% drop in two years, and it's stayed low ever since.

The obvious explanation: fewer people over 90 are working. New Zealand's population in that age bracket is growing, but their participation in the workforce may be declining. If you're not at work, you can't get hurt at work.

But there's another possibility the data can't rule out: workplaces have become safer for the oldest Kiwis still on the job. Better accommodations. Less physical labour. More awareness of the risks faced by older workers.

Either way, the 2020-2021 spike is the anomaly that demands attention. Those two years saw injury numbers double what they are now. Was it a reporting quirk? A surge in older workers during the pandemic? A shift in how ACC classified injuries for this age group?

The drop itself tells us something important: whatever was happening in 2020 and 2021 has stopped. Whether that's because fewer nonagenarians are clocking in, or because the ones who are face less danger, the result is the same. Twelve thousand fewer serious injuries in three years.

But here's what the data doesn't answer: how many New Zealanders over 90 are still working? If that number has stayed steady, then this is a genuine safety success story. If it's collapsed, then the decline in injuries is just a reflection of an ageing workforce stepping back.

The trajectory since 2022 has been remarkably flat. Three years in a row, the figure has hovered just above 12,000. That consistency suggests we've reached a new baseline, not a temporary dip.

For now, the numbers tell us one thing clearly: being over 90 and at work in New Zealand is less likely to send you to hospital than it was four years ago. Whether that's because there are fewer of you, or because the work itself has changed, is the question the data leaves unanswered.