Imagine a café in Hicks Bay. It survived the pandemic, the cost-of-living crunch, the slip that cut off road access for weeks. Then the summer tourists never came. By March, the doors were locked for good.

Now multiply that café by 836,210. That's how many New Zealand businesses died in 2025, (Source: Stats NZ, business-births-deaths) a figure so large it's hard to grasp. One business death every 38 seconds, all year long.

This isn't normal attrition. In 2022, just 597,615 businesses closed. By 2025, that number jumped 40%. The survival rate is collapsing faster than at any point in the past two decades.

The timing matters. Right now, Hicks Bay operators are fighting for their survival after infrastructure failures cut them off during peak season. Meanwhile, the Auckland Business Chamber is celebrating the government's stalled efforts to ban payment surcharges, the tiny margin some retailers cling to. Both stories reflect the same truth: New Zealand's small business landscape is under immense, sustained pressure.

Here's what 836,000 closures looks like on the ground. It's the fish and chip shop that couldn't absorb the power bill increase. The retail store losing customers to online shopping and unable to pass on rent hikes. The tourism operator in a regional town where visitor numbers never recovered.

The four-year trajectory tells the story: 2022 saw a post-COVID dip in closures as stimulus kept businesses afloat. Then reality hit. Deaths climbed to 706,000 in 2023, 780,000 in 2024, and now 836,000 in 2025. That's an additional 238,595 closures compared to three years ago.

These aren't just statistics about company registrations. Each closure represents someone's income, someone's dream, someone's mortgage. It's jobs lost, main streets emptying, suppliers losing clients. When 836,000 businesses die in a single year, the ripple effects touch every corner of the economy.

The government talks about reducing red tape and fostering growth. Business groups lobby over payment surcharges and tariff uncertainty. But the data shows something simpler and more urgent: New Zealand businesses are failing at a record pace, and the trend is accelerating, not slowing.

One every 38 seconds. All year. And 2025 isn't over yet.