Men were more prone than women to workplace accidents in 2014, generating 71 percent of all injury claims and 96 percent of fatal injury claims, Statistics New Zealand said.

This is based on work-related injury claims accepted by the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC).

Age is also a factor, with the highest rates of injury claims coming from workers in the younger (15–24 years) and older (65 years and over) age groups.

“Older workers had high rates of injury claims accepted by ACC, especially for more-serious injuries,” customer, policy, and research manager Michele Lloyd said.

Provisional figures for 2014 show that workers aged 65 years and over had the highest rates of claims for more-serious injuries, with 24 entitlement claims per 1,000 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs). However, this age group had the lowest number of these claims.

For the first time, with the aim of increasing accuracy, Statistics NZ has included Accredited Employers Programme (AEP) claims in work-related injury statistics. This has generally increased the number of work-related claims across the entire series.

The overall rate of injury claims in New Zealand was 111 claims for every 1,000 FTEs. In 2014, ACC approved 226,100 claims for injuries incurred while working.