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Eurostat data released on September 25, 2026, showed that accidents at work claimed 3,367 lives across the European Union in 2024. The total reflected an increase of 45 deaths, or 1.4 percent, compared with the previous year. At the same time non-fatal accidents that resulted in at least four calendar days of absence from work fell to 2.78 million, a reduction of 43,742 cases or 1.5 percent from 2023 levels. The figures come from the European statistics on accidents at work collection that Eurostat updates annually.
Construction recorded by far the highest number of fatal accidents at work in 2024 with 776 deaths, according to Eurostat figures. The sector total nevertheless declined from 802 fatalities in 2023. Transport and storage followed with 537 deaths while manufacturing accounted for 466. These sectors have consistently shown elevated risks relative to others over the past decade. Eurostat data places them ahead of agriculture, forestry and fishing in the latest tally.
The standardised incidence rate of fatal accidents at work averaged 2.10 per 100,000 employed people across the EU in 2024, a Eurostat assessment found. France registered the highest rate at 4.48 per 100,000 employed people. Bulgaria and Latvia followed with rates of 3.92 and 3.74 respectively, the statistics office data shows. Several member states including Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden recorded rates below one per 100,000. The incidence rates help compare countries after adjusting for economic structure differences.
Men were considerably more likely than women to experience workplace accidents, according to Eurostat figures. Some 67.2 percent of the 2.78 million non-fatal accidents in 2024 involved male workers. The pattern aligns with male workers’ higher participation in high-risk sectors such as construction, transport and manufacturing. Eurostat data also indicates that men accounted for the large majority of the fatal cases though exact gender splits for fatalities were not detailed in the initial release.
The ratio between non-fatal and fatal accidents stood at 826 non-fatal cases for every fatal one in 2024, Eurostat reported. Manufacturing alone produced more than half a million non-fatal accidents though that total was the lowest in a decade outside the 2020 pandemic year. Over the longer term the number of fatal accidents has fluctuated with the 2024 figure remaining below some earlier peaks recorded in the collection that dates back to 2008. The WAM news agency highlighted the rise in fatal incidents in its coverage of the Eurostat release.
