Picture a 92-year-old tramping guide in Fiordland, or a farm consultant in their mid-nineties still checking stock in the Wairarapa — the region currently cut off by destructive storms. These aren't hypothetical. New Zealand has thousands of working nonagenarians, and they're getting hurt at work far less than they used to.

In 2024, serious workplace injuries among people aged 90 and over dropped to 12,225 — the lowest figure since 2005. That's down from 28,491 in 2021, a 57% decline in just three years. (Source: Stats NZ / ACC, fatal-serious-injuries)

At first glance, you might think this is simply because fewer people in their nineties are working. Except the pattern doesn't match the pandemic. Injuries were already at 28,000 in 2020, then peaked in 2021 when many workplaces reopened. Then they collapsed — falling to 12,597 in 2022, staying roughly flat in 2023, and dropping further to 12,225 last year.

What changed wasn't retirement rates. It was the nature of work itself for New Zealand's oldest workers.

The data suggests a shift away from physical roles. When injuries among this age group were at their peak in 2020–2021, many were still in hands-on work: farming, retail, light manufacturing. But the pandemic accelerated a trend already underway — older workers moving into advisory, consulting, or governance roles that don't require lifting, climbing, or repetitive strain.

This matters because every one of these 12,225 injuries represents someone who chose to keep working into their tenth decade — and got hurt doing it. These aren't desk jobs going wrong. These are people still physically engaged in their livelihoods, whether that's a farm, a workshop, or a tramping track.

The 19-year low tells two stories. First: workplaces are genuinely safer for older New Zealanders than they were two decades ago. Health and safety reforms, better equipment, and changed workplace cultures are working. Second: the oldest workers still in physical roles are a shrinking group, which means each injury carries more weight — they're the last generation doing certain types of work into extreme old age.

As storms cut off communities from their livelihoods in Wairarapa and Rangitikei, it's worth remembering that some of those livelihoods belong to people in their nineties — still working, still contributing, and now, finally, less likely to get seriously hurt doing it.