33,530 Tenders Show What Government Wants to Buy. Never What It Bought.
RNZ says failing new mothers costs New Zealand $2 billion. The government's tender portal lists 33,530 contract notices, filterable every which way. What it can't tell you: what was actually bought, what it cost, or whether it worked.
The Payslip Nobody Wants: 138,636 Kiwis Earned Income From Injury Last Year
The number of New Zealanders drawing taxable income from accident compensation has doubled since 2000 and risen eleven years straight. That's not a stat about ACC's balance sheet. It's a stat about wages replaced, hours lost, and households running on less.
Youth Court Adult Sentences Hit a 14-Year High. They're Still Down 72% Since 1997.
Three crime stories led the news this week, and the youth justice numbers just spiked to their highest level since 2011. But zoom out and the same dataset shows something worth holding onto: we're still handing down a fraction of the adult sentences we did in the 1990s.
More Than One Under-Five a Day: Child Injuries Hit a 19-Year High
While the government moves to protect under-16s from social media, the hard injury numbers for the youngest Kiwis have quietly climbed to their worst level since 2002. Three straight years above 380 serious or fatal injuries to children aged 0-4.
New Zealand Just Signed 176,229 New Tenancies. Nobody Stays Put Anymore
Bond lodgements hit their highest level since 2011 last year, jumping nearly 15,000 in twelve months. That's the biggest one-year rise since 1996, and it says something uncomfortable about how fast New Zealand neighbourhoods now turn over.
Your Pay Rose More in Five Years Than in the Century's First Twelve
Median earnings jumped $14,420 between 2019 and 2024, beating the total gain from 2000 to 2012. So why does everyone feel skint? The gap between those two numbers is the whole story of the last five years.
One Year, Two Records: Homicide Remand Went From Near-Low to All-Time High
In 2024, the number of people held on remand for homicide and related offences was the lowest in eight years. In 2025 it hit 222, the highest in 27 years of records. Those two numbers sit twelve months apart, and that's the story.
The Work Injury That Tripled Since 2013 While Nobody Was Watching
When a Christchurch business evacuated over an unidentified substance this week, that's the workplace danger we picture. But the fastest-growing injury in the data arrives silently, over months, and claims for it just hit a 15-year high.
New Zealand Just Passed 4 Million Taxpayers for the First Time
RNZ has been writing about pensioners' growing tax bill. Behind that story sits a number nobody marked: in 2024 the count of New Zealanders with a taxable income source hit 4,091,334, the biggest single-year jump in 24 years of records.
The Youth Crime Wave, Measured: 165 Sentenced 17-Year-Olds. Same as 2022.
How big is the youth crime wave, really? The Stats NZ count of Youth Court sentences handed to 17-year-olds says something duller: the number in 2025 is exactly the same as it was in 2022. Here's what six years of flat data actually shows.
A Thousand More People Now Sit in Jail Awaiting Trial for Burglary
Burglary remand numbers just hit 3,207, the highest in 27 years of records and up more than a thousand in a single year. But before you assume the country is being overrun by break-ins, look at what this number actually measures.
None of Them Are Convicted Yet: Violence Remand Just Hit a Record
The number of people held on remand for assault-type offences hit 4,956 in 2025, the highest in 27 years of records and the biggest single-year jump ever. Here's the part that gets left out of the law-and-order speeches: not one of them has been found guilty.