875,001 People Now Draw a Pension. In 2000 It Was Under Half a Million.
Stats NZ's taxable income data tracks 24 years of New Zealand superannuation recipients. Three quarters of all the growth has happened since 2011, and the year with the single biggest jump was 2020.
Drug Remand Fell 29% in Two Years. Then It Rose 52% in Three.
The crime stories in the headlines this week are violent ones. But the fastest-moving number in the remand data is illicit drugs, now at 1,575 people awaiting trial, a record high in 27 years of figures.
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.
Vandalism Charges Aren't Surging. But Remand for Them Has Doubled.
The number of people sitting in jail awaiting trial for property damage hit 429 in 2025, up from 252 just three years earlier. For 25 years the figure barely moved. Something changed, and it wasn't graffiti.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Remand Numbers Just Jumped 23% in a Year. The Biggest Leap on Record.
While the headlines are about alleged corruption inside North Island prisons, Stats NZ figures show remand prisoner numbers hit 20,268 in 2025. That's the largest single-year jump in 27 years of records, and it happened without a single conviction being added.
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.