There were 4,764 fatal work injuries recorded in the United States in 2020—a 10.7% decrease from 2019 and the lowest annual number since 2013, per “National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2020,” a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The fatal work injury rate also decreased, from 3.5 to 3.4 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.
Unfortunately, workers in transportation, materials moving occupations, construction and extraction occupations accounted for nearly half of all fatal occupational injuries—47.4%, or 2,258 fatalities.
Among all categories, women represented 8.1% of all fatalities but 16.3% of all workplace homicides. Workers between the ages of 45 and 54 suffered 954 fatalities, which is the lowest for this demographic since 1992. Hispanic or Latino workers saw a fatality rate of 4.5 deaths per 100,000 FTE workers in 2020, an increase from 4.2 in 2019, while Black or African American workers had a 14.7% decrease.
