ISSUE #2: Health

KPI: Child Immunisation Rates (NIR + AIR adj)

Source: Health NZ - Te Whatu Ora

Latest data: Q2 2026

AKA: healthcare, hospitals

What this graph shows

  • Total % of children immunised across all 7 milestone ages: 6 months, 8 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 54 months (4.5 years), 5 years. (Health NZ's Health Target for childhood immunisation only uses 24 months, which we believe provides an incomplete picture of immunisation performance when data for all 7 milestone ages is available.)
  • Combined NIR (National Immunisation Register) and AIR (Aotearoa Immunisation Register) data. To our knowledge, we are the only organisation publishing this complete historical dataset.
  • 2009 Q2 onwards, when the childhood immunisation data series began.
  • 2009 Q3 data is missing. We have requested this data several times but have not received it, so, given the low impact of a single older data point, we have taken the average of the 2009 Q2 and Q4 numbers on either side for now.

Key notes

  • Health KPI reporting has been in a poor state. Successive governments, mostly Labour-led, have removed health KPIs and reporting requirements, making it difficult to find continuous data series over many years and successive governments. However, childhood immunisation is one data set that has remained available since 2009.
  • In recent years, 4 of the other '5 Health Targets' have also had data retrospectively made publicly available going back to 2015/16. Due to software functionality costs and our limited resources as a citizen-led initiative, we are limited to displaying one KPI per issue on kpi.nz for now. However, these other 4 Health Targets have been produced on www.theFacts.nz.
  • The vertical (y) axis of the immunisation graph starts at 70% and not 0%. This is a common representation of the data, also used by the New Zealand Medical Journal, since 1% shifts in vaccination rates have a significant impact on health outcomes. A scale from 0-100% makes these changes harder to see.
  • Health New Zealand operates on a July-June financial year, so labels April-June results as Q4. We have used a standard annual calendar whereby April-June is Q2.
  • From 2024 Q1 (January-March), the denominator of eligible children changed from NIR (the National Immunisation Register) to AIR (Aotearoa Immunisation Register). This was done to try and improve the accuracy of immunisation rates. Health NZ calculated the difference between NIR and AIR as of 2023 Q4, and the AIR denominator was 3.74515% larger. As such, we have adjusted all figures from 2024 Q1 back to their NIR equivalent so that we can make an apples-with-apples comparison. With 15 years of NIR data (2009-2023), and just 3 years of AIR data (2024-26), we considered it more appropriate to keep the graph on an NIR-equivalent basis. In time, with more AIR quarterly results, we will switch all numbers over to an AIR equivalent.
  • The prioritisation and rollout of COVID-19 mRNA vaccinations, alongside vaccine mandates, have clearly had a negative impact on routine childhood immunisation rates. Context and judgments like this are subjective, so they are impossible to show on a graph alone. It is up to each reader to evaluate the proportion of responsibility they place on each government over the timeframe shown, versus factors outside of their control.
  • External factors can also influence these results, and context is important, but governments are ultimately accountable for New Zealand's performance.
  • Remember that each Labour-led or National-led government has had coalition or support partners that share in their successes and failures. A full list of governments for this time range is at the bottom of this page.

Data sources

Data timing

Why this KPI?

Health has easily been the hardest area to obtain KPIs. Many health targets under previous governments were discontinued without adequate replacements. The following explains our choice of KPI and the difficulties obtaining historical health data. Let’s start with the more commonly referenced KPIs and what we do have.

Childhood immunisation

  • When KPI.nz was launched in October 2023, this was the only lead health KPI with published data over many years and across successive governments.
  • This time series started in 2009 Q2, and has continued to be updated every quarter by every government since.
  • As discussed earlier, governments often report the immunisation rate on only one milestone age (24-months). We have reported an aggregate across all 7 milestone ages: 6 months, 8 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 54 months (4.5 years), 5 years.

ED wait times

  • This is now one of the 5 Health Targets publicly available, and a superior presentation of the data can be seen on www.theFacts.nz.
  • However, when KPI.nz was launched in October 2023, the data had been suppressed by the Labour government of the time, possibly because 3 of the 4 Health Targets concerning wait times had deteriorated so rapidly.
  • To document the transparency and accountability issues we encountered at the time, we have preserved our original October 2023 notes below, unedited. They reflect the information available to us then, rather than the current availability of data. Some original Health NZ and Te Whatu Ora links may no longer work.
    • AKA ‘12 - Shorter Stays in Emergency Departments’
    • We can only find published data for:
    • We asked Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ for all available ED wait time data for all periods via an OIA (Official Information Act) request but they refused saying “We are refusing this part of your request due to substantial collation under s18(f) because collating information with requested breakdown would take Te Whatu Ora employees away from their other core duties and would take significant number of days to extract from source data.”
    • You can see a visual representation and analysis of the most recent 2022 data at https://www.thefacts.nz/equality/ed-wait-times-2022/.

Faster Cancer Treatment

  • Also now one of the 5 Health Targets publicly available, and a superior presentation of the data can be seen on www.theFacts.nz.
  • Original notes - October 2023:
    • AKA ‘6 - Faster Cancer Treatment’
    • ‘The 31-day faster cancer treatment measure is calculated as the proportion of eligible cancer patients who receive their first treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat by a health professional.’ It was 62 days under National.
    • We can only find published data for:
    • Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ also refused to provide more data with the same OIA reply as above.

Elective surgery wait times

  • Also now one of the 5 Health Targets publicly available, and a superior presentation of the data can be seen on www.theFacts.nz.
  • Also a metric that rapidly deteriorated under the 2017-2023 Labour-led Government:
  • Original notes - October 2023:
    • AKA ‘Access to planned care’ and ‘9 - Long Wait times (>12Months) for Surgery and FSA’
    • We can only find published data for:
    • Te Whatu Ora/Health NZ also refused to provide more data with the same OIA reply as above.

Other health metrics as recorded October 2023:

We will continue to update this health section as we make progress in this difficult area. Health really deserves it's own dedicated KPI dashboard.

Discarded

Health workforce.

  • This is an input, not an output measure. More spending and staff are useful measures but don’t necessarily lead to better outcomes. Outcome-focused KPIs are best.

Related facts

Some of these articles contain historical data and analysis that may not have been updated since publication. Please check the dates when interpreting the findings.

Wishlist

With support, we’ll be able to add multiple KPIs for each issue:

  • Updates on many of KPIs listed above.
  • Elective surgery volume
  • Alcohol abuse
  • Smoking/vaping
  • Mental health
    • Overall wellness measure
    • Hours worked
    • Anxiety
    • Stress
    • Depression
    • Loneliness
    • Suicide per capita (a highly contested figure by those helping in this space)
  • ICU beds (this is reflected in the ED, elective surgery, and cancer wait times)
  • Aged care and hospice beds
  • Life expectancy

Governments over the timeframe shown

  • 2008 = National + ACT, United, Māori
    2011 = National + ACT, United, Māori
    2014 = National + ACT, United, Māori

  • 2017 = Labour/NZ First+Green
    2020 = Labour+Green

  • 2023 = National/ACT/NZ First

/ = Coalition partners
+ = Other formal governing agreements, including confidence and supply, support and cooperation.

Sources:1,2 (table 5).

© Copyright

Data published by Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora
© Crown Copyright
Licensed for use under the creative commons attribution licence (BY) 4.0

Analysis and graphics © KPI.nz 2026. Please share widely! You're welcome to reproduce our work with attribution and a link to the original post.

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Authorised by Geoff Neal, [email protected]

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