Workplace safety statistics at a glance
Workplace safety is not one number. It is a set of injuries, illnesses, fatalities, and reporting patterns that show where risk concentrates and where prevention matters most. The latest figures make that visible in a very direct way.
According to the source statistics, the United States recorded 5,070 fatal work injuries in 2024, down from 5,283 in 2023 (BLS CFOI 2024). The fatal work injury rate was 3.3 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in 2024, also down from 3.5 in 2023 (BLS CFOI 2024). That means the overall direction improved, but the total count is still large enough to keep prevention front and center.
Fast facts
- 5,070 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2024 (BLS CFOI 2024).
- The fatal work injury rate was 3.3 per 100,000 FTE workers in 2024 (BLS CFOI 2024).
- A worker died every 104 minutes in 2024, compared with every 99 minutes in 2023 (BLS CFOI 2024).
- Private industry employers reported 2,488,400 nonfatal workplace injury and illness cases in 2024 (BLS SOII 2024).
- OSHA’s 2024 ITA summary data included 392,735 establishments and 1,478,310 work-related injury and illness cases (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
- About 57% of OSHA ITA summary establishments recorded at least one work-related injury or illness in 2024 (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
- OSHA received 688,575 work-related injury and illness incident reports in 2024 through May 31, 2025 (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
Contents
- The national picture
- Which occupations carry the highest fatal risk
- Who is counted in fatal work injury data
- What causes fatal injuries
- Nonfatal injury and illness trends
- What OSHA incident data shows
- Industry patterns in OSHA reporting
- Young workers and high-risk settings
- What the numbers imply for prevention
The national picture
The clearest headline is that the fatal injury count declined in 2024, but it remains substantial. The move from 5,283 fatal work injuries in 2023 to 5,070 in 2024 (BLS CFOI 2024) is a drop, and the fatal injury rate moved from 3.5 to 3.3 per 100,000 FTE workers over the same period (BLS CFOI 2024).
That change matters, but the pace of harm is still easy to picture: a worker died every 104 minutes in 2024 (BLS CFOI 2024). Put differently, there was never a long break in the underlying pattern. Workplace safety is still a continuous systems problem, not a one-time fix.
A second broad signal comes from nonfatal cases. Private industry employers reported 2,488,400 nonfatal workplace injury and illness cases in 2024, including 2,340,400 injuries and 148,000 illnesses (BLS SOII 2024). That mix shows that the everyday burden of workplace harm is not limited to rare catastrophic events.
The long view is also useful. From 2015 to 2024, private industry total recordable cases fell from 2,905,900 to 2,488,400 (BLS SOII 2015-2024 chart), and injuries fell from 2,765,300 to 2,340,400 over the same span (BLS SOII 2015-2024 chart). Illnesses moved the other way, rising from 140,500 to 148,000 (BLS SOII 2015-2024 chart). That combination suggests that different risk types do not move together.
Which occupations carry the highest fatal risk
The occupational data shows that danger is not distributed evenly. Some jobs have both a high count of fatalities and a high fatal injury rate, while others have lower counts but still elevated rates because of the work itself.
| Occupation group | Fatal work injuries in 2024 | Fatal injury rate per 100,000 FTE workers | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Farming, fishing, and forestry | 248 | 25.4 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Construction and extraction | 1,032 | 12.6 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Transportation and material moving | 1,391 | 12.5 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Installation, maintenance, and repair | 437 | 8.9 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Service occupations | 824 | 3.6 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Production occupations | 238 | 3.1 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Sales and related | 189 | 1.5 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Management, business, and financial operations | 342 | 1.1 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Professional and related | 220 | 0.6 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
| Office and administrative support | 91 | 0.6 | BLS occupation chart 2024 |
The most striking figure in the table is farming, fishing, and forestry, which had 248 fatal work injuries but the highest fatal injury rate listed here at 25.4 per 100,000 FTE workers (BLS occupation chart 2024). That is a strong reminder that counts and rates answer different questions. A small occupation group can still face intense risk.
Transportation and material moving and construction and extraction are the other large-risk categories. Transportation and material moving recorded 1,391 fatal injuries with a rate of 12.5 per 100,000 FTE workers (BLS occupation chart 2024). Construction and extraction recorded 1,032 fatal injuries with a rate of 12.6 per 100,000 FTE workers (BLS occupation chart 2024). Those two groups combine large absolute counts with high relative danger.
At the other end of the table, office and administrative support had 91 fatal work injuries and a rate of 0.6 per 100,000 FTE workers (BLS occupation chart 2024). Professional and related occupations had the same rate, 0.6, with 220 fatal injuries (BLS occupation chart 2024). These figures do not mean those jobs are free from harm. They mean the fatal-risk profile is much lower than in the highest-risk occupations.
Who is counted in fatal work injury data
Worker characteristics give the statistics a different shape. Men accounted for 4,657 fatal work injuries in 2024, while women accounted for 413 (BLS CFOI worker characteristics 2024). That split is large enough to matter in any prevention conversation.
Age also matters. Workers age 55 to 64 had 1,031 fatal work injuries in 2024, the largest number among the age groups listed (BLS CFOI age chart 2024). Workers age 35 to 44 had 977, and workers age 45 to 54 had 967 (BLS CFOI age chart 2024). Workers age 65 and over had 824 fatal work injuries (BLS CFOI age chart 2024). Younger workers had fewer fatalities in absolute terms, but not zero: workers age 20 to 24 had 314 fatal work injuries, and workers age 18 to 19 had 66 (BLS CFOI age chart 2024).
Race and ethnicity figures show a similar concentration. White non-Hispanic workers had 2,821 fatal work injuries in 2024 (BLS race or ethnic origin chart 2024). Hispanic or Latino workers had 1,229, Black or African-American non-Hispanic workers had 624, and Asian non-Hispanic workers had 183 (BLS race or ethnic origin chart 2024). American Indian or Alaska Native non-Hispanic workers had 20, and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander non-Hispanic workers had 11 (BLS race or ethnic origin chart 2024).
The point is not to isolate one characteristic as the explanation. The point is that exposure patterns, occupation mix, and work setting all shape who appears in the counts.
What causes fatal injuries
The cause categories explain where prevention has to operate. Transportation incidents caused 1,937 fatal occupational injuries in 2024, the largest cause category listed (BLS CFOI worker characteristics table A-7 2024). Falls, slips, and trips caused 844 (BLS CFOI worker characteristics table A-7 2024). Contact incidents caused 756 (BLS CFOI worker characteristics table A-7 2024). Violent acts caused 733, and exposure to harmful substances and environments caused 687 (BLS CFOI worker characteristics table A-7 2024). Explosions and fires caused 93 (BLS CFOI worker characteristics table A-7 2024).
Those figures are useful because they show that prevention cannot be narrowly focused on one hazard class. Transportation safety, fall prevention, violence prevention, and exposure control all need attention. The causes are different, but the result is the same: a fatality that should not have happened.
A useful way to read these numbers is to compare the high-level cause categories with the occupational data. Transportation and material moving occupations are exposed to transportation incidents by the nature of the work, while construction and extraction face elevated fall risk and other site hazards. The statistics do not name a single solution, but they do show where the highest stakes are.
Nonfatal injury and illness trends
The nonfatal data is where the scale of everyday risk becomes clear.
Private industry employers reported 2,488,400 nonfatal workplace injury and illness cases in 2024 (BLS SOII 2024). Of those, 2,340,400 were injuries and 148,000 were illnesses (BLS SOII 2024). The total recordable case rate was 2.3 per 100 FTE workers, down from 2.4 in 2023 (BLS SOII 2024). The injury rate was 2.2 per 100 FTE workers in 2024 (BLS SOII 2024). The illness rate was 13.9 per 10,000 FTE workers, down from 19.0 in 2023 (BLS SOII 2024).
A few useful comparisons
| Measure | 2023 | 2024 | Change | Source label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fatal work injuries | 5,283 | 5,070 | Down | BLS CFOI 2024 |
| Fatal injury rate per 100,000 FTE workers | 3.5 | 3.3 | Down | BLS CFOI 2024 |
| Private industry total recordable case rate | 2.4 | 2.3 | Down | BLS SOII 2024 |
| Private industry illness rate per 10,000 FTE workers | 19.0 | 13.9 | Down | BLS SOII 2024 |
The illness rate change stands out. Moving from 19.0 to 13.9 per 10,000 FTE workers is a meaningful decline (BLS SOII 2024). Respiratory illness cases also fell to 54,000 in 2024, down 46.1% from 2023 (BLS SOII 2024). Those numbers suggest that illness patterns can shift quickly when underlying conditions change.
The 2015-to-2024 trend is also worth keeping in view. Total recordable cases declined by 417,500 over that period, and injuries declined by 424,900 (BLS SOII 2015-2024 chart). Illnesses increased by 7,500 (BLS SOII 2015-2024 chart). So while the overall recordable burden declined, the balance between injury and illness shifted slightly.
What OSHA incident data shows
OSHA’s 2024 ITA summary data gives another angle on the same issue. It included 392,735 establishments and 1,478,310 work-related injury and illness cases in 2024 (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). About 57% of those establishments recorded at least one work-related injury or illness (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
That is not a fringe problem. It is a broad operational one.
The OSHA summary also shows the burden behind the counts. Roughly 35% of cases required days away from work, and roughly 29% required days of job transfer or restriction (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). The cases produced over 18 million days away from work and over 22 million days of job transfer or restriction (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). Those are lost work days, modified duties, and operational disruption on a massive scale.
OSHA also received 688,575 work-related injury and illness incident reports in 2024 through May 31, 2025 (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). Those reports described 47% of the nearly 1.5 million recorded incidents in the summary data (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). That means the incident-level data is extensive, but still only part of the larger reporting universe.
Reporting patterns inside the OSHA data
Several internal patterns are especially useful:
- Incident reports were evenly split among male and female workers in OSHA’s 2024 ITA incident data (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
- The average worker age in the incident data was 40 years (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
- Workers age 25 to 34 accounted for 25% of incident reports (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
- Workers age 35 to 44 accounted for 20% of incident reports (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
- Roughly 32% of incident reports happened within the worker’s first year on the job (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
- About 65% of incident reports came from establishments with 250 or more employees (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
- About 93% of incident reports came from private-sector establishments (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
These are practical clues. They show where reporting volume comes from, which workers are represented, and how tenure and establishment size factor into the data.
Industry patterns in OSHA reporting
The OSHA summary highlights several industries with large shares of reported incidents.
Healthcare and social assistance accounted for 28% of submitted incidents, transportation and warehousing for 26%, retail trade for 17%, and manufacturing for 15% (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). These are very different sectors, but they share the fact that they generate large incident volumes.
There is also a more detailed picture inside those sectors. In healthcare and social assistance, 67% of incidents occurred in general medical and surgical hospitals (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). In transportation and warehousing, 32% of incidents were in couriers and express delivery services and 30% were in general warehousing and storage (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). In retail trade, 40% of incidents were in supermarkets and other grocery stores except convenience stores, and 33% were in warehouse clubs and supercenters (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
The case-type mix also varies by industry. In healthcare and social assistance, respiratory condition incidents were 6% versus an overall average of 2% (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). In utilities, DAFW cases were 44% of OSHA incidents, versus an overall average of 36% (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). In transportation and warehousing, DAFW cases were 44% and DJTR cases were 40% (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). In wholesale trade, DAFW and DJTR cases were both 41% (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
Some industries also show a larger share of “other recordable cases.” In healthcare and social assistance, other recordable cases were 51% of incidents; in educational services, 48%; and in public administration, 45% (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). That distribution matters because it suggests that not all injury systems are dominated by the same type of outcome.
Young workers and high-risk settings
Young-worker data adds a separate prevention angle. OSHA reported 104 incidents among workers age 14 to 15 and 22,033 incidents among workers age 16 to 19, together accounting for about 3% of ITA incident reports (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). Even though the total share is relatively small, the settings are familiar and important.
In OSHA’s young-worker data, 36% of incidents occurred in retail trade (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). The most common occupations included laborers and freight/stock/material movers at 20%, stockers and order fillers at 17%, retail salespersons at 11%, nursing assistants at 7%, cashiers at 5%, and fast food and counter workers at 4% (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
The outcome pattern also matters. In young-worker data, 94% of incidents were injuries, 64% required days away from work or days on job transfer/restriction, 19% were treated in an emergency room, and less than 1% required inpatient hospitalization (OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary). Those figures show that many incidents are not trivial even when they do not lead to the most severe medical outcome.
What the numbers imply for prevention
The statistics point to a few practical themes.
First, the safest overall trend is not the same as a safe workplace. Fatal work injuries fell in 2024, but the count remained over 5,000 and the fatal injury rate remained at 3.3 per 100,000 FTE workers (BLS CFOI 2024). That is improvement, not resolution.
Second, rates matter as much as counts. Farming, fishing, and forestry had far fewer total fatalities than transportation and material moving, but its fatal injury rate was the highest in the occupation table at 25.4 per 100,000 FTE workers (BLS occupation chart 2024). A high-risk field can be hidden if you only look at totals.
Third, the nonfatal burden is massive. More than 2.4 million private-industry cases, more than 1.4 million OSHA summary cases, and tens of millions of days lost or restricted all point to the same underlying reality: workplace safety affects daily operations, not just rare incidents (BLS SOII 2024; OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
Fourth, the structure of risk varies by sector and worker group. Transportation incidents dominate fatal causes, healthcare and transportation generate large incident shares, and younger workers are heavily represented in retail and stock-handling roles (BLS CFOI worker characteristics table A-7 2024; OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
Fifth, the data suggests that prevention has to be specific. Fall prevention, transportation safety, chemical and respiratory exposure controls, violence prevention, machine safety, and training for new workers all address different patterns that appear in the statistics (BLS CFOI worker characteristics table A-7 2024; OSHA 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary).
The most useful way to read workplace safety statistics is to treat them as a map. The map does not replace action, but it shows where the danger is concentrated, where the burden is growing or falling, and where prevention effort is most likely to matter.