The incidence of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) decreased by 34% between 2001 and 2018 in New Zealand, and SAH case-fatality decreased by 12% over the same time period. These were the findings of a study using administrative health data from the national hospital discharge and cause-of-death collections, with data from two prospective Auckland Regional Community Stroke Studies used for external validation. Compared with European/other individuals, Māori had higher SAH incidence (relative risk [RR] 2.23; 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.08-2.39) and SAH case-fatality (RR 1.14; 95% CI 1.06-1.22) over the study period. SAH incidence was also higher in Pacific peoples (RR 1.40; 95% CI 1.24 1.59) but lower in Asians (RR 0.79; 95% CI 0.71-0.89) compared with European/ other individuals. The age-standardised SAH incidence ranged from 6.3 to 11.5 per 100,000 person-years and SAH case-fatality from 40% to 57% depending on geographic region.