Fatal work injuries totaled 177 in 2022 for Illinois, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Illinois was up from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 262 in 1996 to a low of 135 in 2020. Nationwide, a total of 5,486 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2022, a 5.7-percent increase from 5,190 in 2021, according to the results from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI).

  

View Chart Data

Chart 1. Number of fatal occupational injuries by employee status, Illinois, 2013–22

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2013	176	129	47
2014	164	121	43
2015	172	132	40
2016	171	129	42
2017	163	124	39
2018	184	140	44
2019	158	129	29
2020	135	109	26
2021	176	140	36
2022	177	132	45

In Illinois, transportation incidents resulted in 75 fatal work injuries and accounted for 42 percent of all fatal workplace injuries in the state. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Worker deaths from transportation incidents were up from 59 over the year.

Exposure to harmful substances or environments accounted for 30 fatalities, up from 21 over the year. Violence and other injuries by persons or animals was the third-most frequent fatal work event with 26 fatalities, down from 37 in the prior year. Falls, slips, or trips resulted in 23 work-related deaths compared to 33 in 2021.

Nationally, transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal event in 2022, accounting for 38 percent of fatal work injuries. Falls, slips, and trips was the second-most common fatal event (16 percent), followed by both violence and other injuries by persons or animals and exposure to harmful substances or environments (15 percent each).

  

View Chart Data

Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and Illinois, 2022

Event	United States	Illinois
Transportation incidents	38	42
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15	17
Violence and other injuries by persons or animals	16	15
Falls, slips, trips	16	13
All other	16	13

The private transportation and warehousing industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in Illinois with 41, the same as in the previous year. (See table 2.) Transportation incidents resulted in 27 of the 41 fatalities in the industry. The truck transportation subsector accounted for 25 of the 41 fatal workplace injuries in the transportation and warehousing industry.

The private construction industry sector had 27 fatal workplace injuries, up from 19 in the previous year. The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 21, or 78 percent, of the fatal injuries in the construction industry.

The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 56. (See table 3.) Heavy and tractor-trailer truck drivers accounted for 25 of the 56 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers. The construction and extraction occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 27. Construction laborers suffered eight of the work-related deaths within the construction and extraction group.

Men accounted for 94 percent of the work-related fatalities in Illinois, compared to the 92-percent national share. (See table 4.) Transportation incidents made up 43 percent of the fatalities for men in Illinois.

White non-Hispanics accounted for 68 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 58 percent of work-related deaths.

Workers 55 years and over accounted for 39 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2022, compared to 35 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.

Of the 177 fatal work injuries in Illinois, 75 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. The most frequent fatal event for both wage and salary workers and self-employed workers was transportation incidents.

Background of the program. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Safety and Health Statistics (OSHS) program, is a count of all fatalities resulting from workplace injuries occurring in the U.S. during the calendar year. The CFOI uses a variety of state, federal, and independent data sources to identify, verify, and describe fatal work injuries. This ensures counts are as complete and accurate as possible. For the 2022 national data, over 27,200 unique source documents were reviewed as part of the data collection process. For technical information and definitions for the CFOI, see the BLS Handbook of Methods and the CFOI definitions.

Federal/State agency coverage. The CFOI includes data for all fatal work injuries, some of which may be outside the scope of other agencies or regulatory coverage. Comparisons between CFOI counts and those released by other agencies should account for the different coverage requirements and definitions used by each agency. For more information on the scope of CFOI, see Scope of the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries: Concepts.

Latency Cases. Latent fatal occupational injury cases occur when the date of injury differs from the date of death. In some cases, the death occurs in a different year than the occupational injury and are known as cross-year latent cases. In 2022, there were 186 cases nationally where this occurred, and 157 of these latent cases occurred more than 30 days prior to the start of 2022. For more information on latent cases, see Understanding latency in fatal occupational injuries.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. CFOI reports fatal workplace injuries only. These may include fatal workplace injuries complicated by an illness such as COVID-19. Fatal workplace illnesses not precipitated by an injury are not in scope for CFOI. CFOI does not report any illness related information, including COVID-19. Additional information is available on the Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic on Workplace Injuries and Illnesses, Compensation, Occupational Requirements, and Work Stoppages Statistics.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the Illinois Department of Public Health for their efforts in collecting accurate, comprehensive, and useful data on fatal work injuries. BLS also appreciates the efforts of all federal, state, local, and private sector entities that provided source documents used to identify fatal work injuries. Among these agencies are the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; the National Transportation Safety Board; the U.S. Coast Guard; the Mine Safety and Health Administration; the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (Federal Employees' Compensation and Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation divisions); the Federal Railroad Administration; the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; state vital statistics registrars, coroners, and medical examiners; state departments of health, labor, and industrial relations and workers' compensation agencies; state and local police departments; and state farm bureaus.

Information in this release will be made available to individuals with sensory impairments upon request. Voice phone: (202) 691-5200; Telecommunications Relay Service: 7-1-1.