Employee count in public order, safety and regulatory services in New Zealand
As at February 2000–2025, number of employees
| Year as at February | Number of employees |
|---|---|
| 2008 | 37,200 |
| 2000 | 24,700 |
| 2018 | 43,900 |
| 2015 | 39,400 |
| 2017 | 42,500 |
| 2001 | 26,400 |
| 2016 | 40,800 |
| 2006 | 32,700 |
| 2010 | 37,900 |
| 2014 | 40,400 |
| 2019 | 46,300 |
| 2023 | 52,300 |
| 2004 | 30,300 |
| 2021 | 50,400 |
| 2013 | 39,200 |
| 2012 | 39,300 |
| 2020 | 49,500 |
| 2005 | 31,000 |
| 2003 | 28,700 |
| 2002 | 28,000 |
| 2024 | 54,200 |
| 2022 | 51,400 |
| 2007 | 34,900 |
| 2011 | 38,600 |
| 2009 | 37,300 |
| 2025 | 54,000 |
Definitions
The enterprise unit represents the legal business entity (eg a limited company, a partnership, a trust, an incorporated society). Where a group of limited companies is linked by ownership of shares, we record each individual limited company in the statistics as a separate enterprise.
ANZSIC06: Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification 2006. A business is normally assigned to an ANZSIC06 category according to the predominant activity it is engaged in. ANZSIC06 is a hierarchical classification with four levels: division, subdivision, group, and class.
For more information
Limitations of the data
The Business Register (BR) supports quality national-level and aggregate industry-level statistics but is not designed to provide quality fine-level regional or industry statistics. The BR update sources can have timing lags and less robust information for small and medium-sized enterprises. These quality weaknesses can be highlighted in fine-level business demography statistics.
The employee count for any given industry can have two different figures for enterprises and geographic units of that industry. The reason is that some multi-location enterprises classified to a particular industry could have many geographic units that are classified to other industries (for example a fishing business may have a seafood processing plant, which would be coded to a single industry in this data).
Classification changes or revisions across years may have a significant impact on the employee count for smaller industries.
Inclusions
Business demography statistics coverage is limited to economically significant enterprises that are engaged in producing goods and services in New Zealand. An enterprise must meet at least one of the following criteria:
- annual expenses or sales subject to GST of more than $30,000
- 12-month rolling mean employee count of greater than three
- part of a group of enterprises
- registered for GST and involved in agriculture or forestry
- over $40,000 of income recorded in the IR10 annual tax return (this includes some units in residential property leasing and rental).
Exclusions
All non-trading or dormant enterprises, as well as enterprises outside New Zealand, are excluded from business demography statistics.
Changes to data collection/processing
Up to the 2015 release, the business demography statistics series used the Longitudinal Business Frame as its data source. The Longitudinal Business Frame was constructed from all current and historic Business Frame data. The Business Register (BR) that replaced the Business Frame in 2014 allows for easy creation of longitudinal snapshots. From 2016 onwards, the business demography statistics will use the BR as its data source.
Data provided by
Dataset name
Business Demography Statistics: Enterprises by industry 2025
Webpage:
How to find the data
Data is displayed at URL provided. To create this dataset, click on download and 'Unfiltered data in tabular text (CSV)'.
Please note Figure.NZ filtered this dataset to ensure only unique industry categories remained. The list of filtered ANZSIC codes has been added to the downloadable Excel file for reference.
Import & extraction details
File as imported: Business Demography Statistics: Enterprises by industry 2025
From the dataset Business Demography Statistics: Enterprises by industry 2025, this data was extracted:
- Sheet: Data
- Range:
K2:K36381 - Provided: 36,380 data points
This data forms the table Business - Enterprises and employees by detailed industry 2000–2025.
Dataset originally released on:
October 30, 2025
About this dataset
Business demography statistics provide an annual snapshot (at February) of the structure and characteristics of New Zealand businesses. The series covers economically significant enterprises that are engaged in producing goods and services in New Zealand.