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Work-related Fatalities Declined in 2020

Published
16 December 2021

Category
News

There were 4,764 work-related fatalities recorded in 2020, a 10.7 percent decrease from 5,333 in 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The fatal work injury rate was 3.4 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, down from 3.5 per 100,000 FTE in 2019.

Here are some key findings from the 2020 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI):

The 2020 fatality rate is the lowest since 2013.
A worker died every 111 minutes from a work-related injury in 2020.
The transportation industry continued to have the highest fatality rate, accounting for 37.3 percent of all work-related deaths.
The share of Hispanic or Latino workers fatally injured on the job continued to grow, increasing to 22.5 percent (1,072 fatalities) from 20.4 percent (1,088 fatalities) in 2019.
Women comprised 8.1 percent of all fatalities but represented 16.3 percent of workplace homicides in 2020.
Occupational suicides decreased from 307 in 2019 to 259 in 2020, the lowest number since 2015.

CFOI data may include fatal workplace injuries complicated by an illness such as COVID-19. Fatal workplace illnesses not precipitated by an injury are not included in the CFOI.

Visit this BLS webpage to view all of the data and tables by category.