Fatalities Recorded by the Department of Labour

Another source of New Zealand health and safety statistics and commentary can be found on the Statistics New Zealand website. Note that a small change in the number of fatalities from year to year can cause a large proportionate annual change. Injury rates are another indicator of health and safety performance, and as a larger figure, the annual number of injury claims is less likely to be subject to large proportionate annual fluctuations.

The Statistics New Zealand report provides information about work-related injury claims accepted by ACC, including fatalities, and offers information by gender, age, ethnicity, occupation, region and industry. (Please note Statistics New Zealand website information is in calendar years; Department of Labour information shown here is in government financial years, ending 30 June.)

The number of fatalities reported by Statistics New Zealand differs from that reported by the Department of Labour for the reasons described in the notes below.

Industry	Forestry	Construction	Industrial/ Commercial	Agriculture/ Horticulture	Extractive Industries - mines, quarries and petroleum extraction[7]	Total
Year
2007/2008[6]	2	9	22	20	0	53
2006/2007	5	13	15	21	1	55
2005/2006	7	14	26	17	1	65
2004/2005[5]	1	5	16	24	1	47
2003/2004[4]	9	6	30	15	2	62
2002/2003[3]	7	14	29	22	1	73
2001/2002	2	12	29	25	5	73
2000/2001[2]	7	8	7	17	0	39
1999/2000[1]	4	17	16	17	2	56
1998/1999	9	13	9	12	N/A	43
1997/1998	9	17	15	15	N/A	56
1996/1997	9	10	10	12	N/A	41
1995/1996	11	18	10	14	N/A	53
1994/1995	11	16	14	4	N/A	45
1993/1994	9	4	10	16	N/A	39

Last updated 31 July 2008.

These statistics show the number of fatal work-related incidents reported to the Department of Labour and investigated under the Health and Safety in Employment (HSE) Act 1992. This may involve the death an employee, self-employed person, or a person in, or in the vicinity of, a place of work. All data is based on the year ending 30 June and is now part of a revised time series.

CAUTION: DATA LIMITATIONS

The Department of Labour fatality investigation statistics are administrative statistics arising from coverage of the HSE Act and do not indicate overall fatality trends in New Zealand Workplaces.

The Department of Labour statistics do not include fatalities in the Maritime or Aviation sectors, or fatalities due to work-related crashes on the road as these are investigated by Maritime New Zealand, the Civil Aviation Authority and the NZ Police respectively.

The Department of Labour figures do not include fatalities from long latency diseases caused by exposure to hazardous substances.

The annual statistics published on this website may differ from those published previously by the Department of Labour because further information about fatalities for the period may have become available after publication. The statistics on the website are updated if additional information becomes available following subsequent enquiries.

NOTE:

1. Statistics provided historically reduced from 57 to 56 where one death was ruled by the coroner to be not work-related.
2. Statistics provided historically reduced from 40 to 39 where one case was determined to be not work-related.
3. Statistics provided historically reduced from 76 to 73 because three cases were determined to be outside the Department of Labour's jurisdiction.
4. Statistics provided historically reduced from 65 to 62 because three cases were determined to be outside the Department of Labour's jurisdiction.
5. Statistics provided historically increased from 46 to 47 as one case was identified to be work-related for this period.
6. Data for this period is provisional and may be updated if additional information becomes available.
7. Fatalities for Extractive Industries (category includes Mines, Quarries and Petroleum Extraction) prior to 1999/2000 were recorded by the Ministry of Economic Development, Mining and Inspection Group.

   N/A Not Available