27 in 2019, 93 Now: Young Offenders Are Getting Adult Sentences Again
Youth Court adult sentences have more than tripled in six years and just hit a 14-year high. But the same dataset shows the 1990s handed out three times as many, which is the part that changes the argument.
Fewer Family Homes Have an Extra Adult In Them Than Any Year Since 2008
Stats NZ counts households made up of a couple, their dependent kids, and at least one other person. That number has fallen to 28,600 nationally, the lowest since 2008 and down 10,400 from the 2014 peak. Here's why a household count is really a story about who can afford to move out.
Over-75s Are Getting Hurt at Work Twice as Often as in 2012
Work injury claims for New Zealanders aged 75 and over have more than doubled in twelve years, from 1,233 to 2,598. That's about ten injured over-75s every working day, and almost nobody is talking about them.
375 More People on Remand for Sexual Assault in a Single Year
Arrests make the news. What happens next sits in a Stats NZ table almost nobody reads. Sexual assault remand numbers just jumped 57% in one year to a 27-year high, and not one of those people has been convicted of anything yet.
39 Serious Injuries a Day: New Zealand Hasn't Had a Safer Year Since 2008
Serious non-fatal injuries have risen every single year since 2008, reaching 14,283 in 2024. But the climb has almost stalled since 2019, and that flattening is the most hopeful number in 24 years of data.
Retail Pay Now Supports a Record 254,724 Kiwis. The GFC Cost Nine Years
More New Zealanders rely on retail earnings as their main income than at any point since 2000. But the recovery from the global financial crisis took nine years, and retail has never grown as fast since.
Courts Withdrew 42,311 Charges Last Year, the Most Since 2010
Withdrawn charges have climbed for four straight years and are now 40% above their 2021 level. But the latest jump was the smallest of the run, which is the part worth watching.
88,644 More Kiwis Got a Wage Last Year. That's a Record Workforce.
The most recent tax data shows 2,810,745 people earned wages or salaries in 2024, the highest ever recorded. Two shocks knocked this number backwards this century, and the recovery times tell you exactly how different 2008 and 2020 really were.
Youth Courts Handed Out 873 Money Orders in 1997. Last Year: 36.
Monetary, confiscation and disqualification orders in the Youth Court have fallen 96% from their 1997 peak. Two numbers from the same dataset show something bigger than a policy tweak: an entire way of dealing with young offenders has quietly disappeared.
Courts Are Sentencing a Quarter as Many Fraudsters as They Did in 1999
Australia's regulator says AI could make home loan fraud easier, and hundreds of millions may already be at risk. Meanwhile, New Zealand's own fraud sentencing numbers have quietly fallen to their lowest level in 27 years of records. Here's what that gap actually tells you.
Big Families Are Disappearing: Three-Plus-Kid Households Hit a 28-Year Low
When schools ask parents to keep sick kids home, the households with the most children absorb the most disruption. There are fewer of them than at any point since 1998: 74,900 couples raising three or more dependent children, down from 92,300 in 2019.
Six Surveys, Sixteen Years, One Number: 100.0 Every Single Time
Stats NZ's household expenditure series has recorded exactly 100.0 in every survey round since 2007. Here's why a number that never moves is still telling you something important about how we measure the cost of living.