A preliminary total of 4,679 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2014, an increase of 2 percent over the revised count of 4,585 fatal work injuries in 2013, according to results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) conducted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The preliminary rate of fatal work injury for U.S. workers in 2014 was 3.3 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers; the revised rate for 2013 was also 3.3. Revised 2014 data from CFOI will be released in the late spring of 2016. Over the last 5 years, net increases to the preliminary count have averaged 173 cases, ranging from a low of 84 in 2011 (up 2 percent) to a high of 245 in 2012 (up 6 percent).
Key preliminary findings of the 2014 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries:
The number of fatal work injuries in private goods-producing industries in 2014 was 9 percent
higher than the revised 2013 count but slightly lower in private service-providing industries. Fatal
injuries were higher in mining (up 17 percent), agriculture (up 14 percent), manufacturing (up
9 percent), and construction (up 6 percent). Fatal work injuries for government workers were
lower (down 12 percent).
Falls, slips, and trips increased 10 percent to 793 in 2014 from 724 in 2013. This was driven
largely by an increase in falls to a lower level to 647 in 2014 from 595 in 2013.
Fatal work injuries involving workers 55 years of age and over rose 9 percent to 1,621 in 2014 up
from 1,490 in 2013. The preliminary 2014 count for workers 55 and over is the highest total ever
reported by CFOI.
After a sharp decline in 2013, fatal work injuries among self-employed workers increased
10 percent in 2014 from 950 in 2013 to 1,047 in 2014.
Women incurred 13 percent more fatal work injuries in 2014 than in 2013. Even with this
increase, women accounted for only 8 percent of all fatal occupational injuries in 2014.
Fatal work injuries among Hispanic or Latino workers were lower in 2014, while fatal injuries
among non-Hispanic white, black or African-American, and Asian workers were all higher.
In 2014, 797 decedents were identified as contracted workers, 6 percent higher than the
749 fatally-injured contracted workers reported in 2013. Workers who were contracted at the time
of their fatal injury accounted for 17 percent of all fatal work injury cases in 2014.
The number of fatal work injuries among police officers and police supervisors was higher in
2014, rising from 88 in 2013 to 103 in 2014, an increase of 17 percent.
