Fatal injury rates, by state

Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities

Fatal injury rates⁽¹⁾ by state, 2007-19
State	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Alabama	5.4	5.3	4.3	5.1	4.0	4.3	4.0	4.0	3.7	5.2	4.3	4.5	4.2
Alaska	9.3	10.6	5.6	11.5	11.1	8.9	7.9	7.8	4.1	10.6	10.2	9.9	14.1
Arizona	3.5	3.4	2.9	2.8	2.7	2.3	3.5	3.1	2.4	2.6	3.0	2.5	2.7
Arkansas	7.2	6.8	6.4	7.6	8.0	5.4	5.6	5.7	5.8	5.3	6.1	6.3	5.0
California	2.7	2.8	2.6	2.1	2.4	2.3	2.4	2.0	2.2	2.2	2.2	2.3	2.5
Colorado	5.1	4.2	3.4	3.7	3.9	3.5	2.7	3.3	2.9	3.0	2.8	2.6	2.9
Connecticut	2.2	1.6	2.0	3.0	2.2	2.1	1.8	2.1	2.6	1.6	1.9	2.8	1.4
Delaware	2.5	2.3	1.9	2.2	2.6	3.1	2.6	2.8	1.9	2.6	2.4	1.6	4.1
District of Columbia	4.2	3.1	4.0	5.6	3.1	3.6	7.3	3.1	2.4	1.4	3.4	2.8	2.5
Florida	4.4	3.5	3.2	3.0	2.9	2.7	2.8	2.7	3.1	3.6	3.3	3.5	3.2
Georgia	4.4	4.2	2.8	2.8	2.8	2.5	2.8	3.6	4.3	3.9	4.1	3.8	4.3
Hawaii	3.7	2.4	2.1	3.2	4.2	3.4	1.6	5.0	2.6	2.4	2.2	3.4	4.1
Idaho	4.5	5.1	4.3	4.9	5.1	2.7	4.3	4.7	4.8	4.1	4.8	5.8	4.1
Illinois	3.0	3.3	2.9	3.7	3.1	2.5	3.1	2.9	2.9	2.9	2.8	3.1	2.7
Indiana	4.2	5.0	4.7	4.2	4.5	4.2	4.4	4.4	3.9	4.5	4.5	5.6	4.7
Iowa	5.8	5.9	5.6	5.2	6.3	6.6	4.7	6.0	3.9	4.8	4.7	4.9	4.7
Kansas	7.2	5.3	5.8	6.5	5.9	5.7	4.2	5.5	4.4	5.2	5.2	4.5	6.0
Kentucky	5.9	5.9	6.0	4.1	5.4	4.9	4.7	4.5	5.5	5.0	3.8	4.2	4.2
Louisiana	7.7	7.3	8.0	6.2	6.3	6.4	6.3	6.3	5.8	5.0	6.3	5.1	6.2
Maine	3.2	3.9	2.8	3.3	4.2	3.2	3.1	2.9	2.5	2.4	2.7	2.5	3.0
Maryland	3.1	2.2	2.5	2.7	2.6	2.6	2.7	2.6	2.4	3.2	3.0	3.4	2.6
Massachusetts	2.4	2.2	2.2	1.8	2.2	1.4	1.8	1.7	2.1	3.3	3.2	2.7	2.4
Michigan	2.6	2.8	2.3	3.6	3.5	3.4	3.3	3.3	3.1	3.5	3.4	3.4	3.6
Minnesota	2.8	2.5	2.4	2.8	2.3	2.6	2.6	2.3	2.7	3.4	3.5	2.7	2.6
Mississippi	8.0	6.3	6.3	6.4	5.5	5.5	6.2	7.1	6.8	6.3	6.2	6.7	5.2
Missouri	5.7	5.4	5.6	4.2	4.9	3.3	4.3	3.9	4.3	4.3	4.4	5.1	3.7
Montana	11.2	8.2	12.1	8.2	11.2	7.3	5.8	4.9	7.5	7.9	6.9	5.5	7.8
Nebraska	6.7	5.7	6.2	6.3	3.9	5.2	4.0	5.8	5.4	6.3	3.6	4.7	5.4
Nevada	5.4	3.3	2.2	3.7	3.1	3.6	3.0	3.1	3.5	4.2	2.4	2.8	2.8
New Hampshire	2.1	1.1	0.9	0.9	1.2	2.2	2.1	2.6	2.7	3.2	1.6	2.9	1.5
New Jersey	2.5	2.3	2.6	2.2	2.6	2.4	2.6	2.1	2.3	2.4	1.6	2.0	1.8
New Mexico	5.8	3.5	5.2	4.9	6.6	4.8	6.7	6.7	4.1	4.9	4.7	4.7	6.2
New York	2.5	2.4	2.2	2.2	2.5	2.4	2.1	2.8	2.7	3.1	3.5	3.1	3.1
New York City	2.3	2.6	1.9	2.0	2.2	2.3	1.6	2.2	2.0	1.5	2.3	2.0	2.5
North Carolina	3.9	3.9	3.3	3.5	3.7	3.5	2.5	3.1	3.4	3.7	3.9	3.8	4.0
North Dakota	7.1	8.3	7.9	8.5	12.4	17.7	14.9	9.8	12.5	7.0	10.1	9.6	9.7
Ohio	2.9	3.2	2.8	3.2	3.1	3.1	3.0	3.6	3.9	3.1	3.3	3.0	3.1
Oklahoma	6.5	6.4	5.3	6.3	5.5	6.1	5.8	6.2	5.5	5.6	5.5	5.2	4.2
Oregon	3.8	3.1	3.9	2.9	3.4	2.6	2.9	3.9	2.6	3.9	3.2	3.1	3.5
Pennsylvania	3.7	4.1	3.1	4.0	3.4	3.4	3.2	3.1	3.0	2.8	3.0	3.0	2.6
Rhode Island	1.0	1.2	1.5	1.9	1.5	1.7	2.1	2.1	1.2	1.8	1.6	1.8	1.8
South Carolina	6.2	4.5	4.0	3.6	4.5	3.5	3.9	3.3	5.6	4.4	4.2	4.6	4.8
South Dakota	5.4	6.9	5.9	8.8	6.7	6.7	4.7	7.2	4.9	7.5	7.3	6.9	4.7
Tennessee	5.5	5.1	4.5	5.4	4.5	3.8	3.6	4.8	3.7	4.3	4.4	4.1	4.0
Texas	5.1	4.4	4.6	4.4	4.0	4.8	4.4	4.5	4.5	4.4	4.3	3.8	4.7
Utah	6.0	5.1	3.9	3.4	3.3	3.0	2.9	4.2	3.2	3.2	2.9	3.4	3.5
Vermont	2.8	3.2	2.9	3.9	2.6	3.5	2.2	3.2	2.9	3.2	7.0	3.5	3.2
Virginia	3.7	4.1	3.3	2.8	3.4	3.8	3.2	2.8	2.8	4.0	2.9	3.5	4.3
Washington	2.9	2.6	2.5	3.4	1.9	2.2	1.7	2.7	2.1	2.4	2.5	2.4	2.3
West Virginia	7.8	7.2	5.7	13.7	5.9	6.9	8.6	5.2	5.0	6.6	7.4	7.9	6.4
Wisconsin	3.6	2.7	3.4	3.4	3.3	4.0	3.5	3.5	3.6	3.6	3.5	3.8	3.8
Wyoming	17.1	12.4	7.5	12.9	11.6	12.2	9.5	13.1	12.0	12.3	7.7	11.5	12.0
^[1] Workers under the age of 16 years, volunteer workers, and members of the resident military are not included in rate calculations to maintain consistency with the Current Population Survey (CPS) and Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) employment. The ownership category government is not presented separately and may be included in any industry category. In 2007, the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) adopted hours-based state fatal injury rates. Employment-based rates were used previously. Because of substantial differences between rates calculated using the two methods, hours-based state fatal injury rates should not be compared to the employment-based rates from previous years. Note: Dashes indicate that a fatal injury rate was not calculated because the data did not meet publication criteria or there were no data reported. Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Local Area Unemployment Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2020.

Fatal injury rate computation

Fatal injury rates depict the risk of incurring a fatal occupational injury and can be used to compare risk among worker groups with varying employment levels. Since employment data are not collected by CFOI, fatal injury rates are calculated using CPS and LAUS data. Each state rate in the table above represents the number of fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers and was calculated as:

Fatality rate = (N_S/EH_S) x 200,000,000 where
      N_S = number of fatal work injuries in the state
      EH_S= total hours worked by all employees in the state during the calendar year
      200,000,000 = base for 100,000 equivalent full-time workers (working 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year)

State rates by industry were imputed by using national-level "average hours" and "at work" information from CPS to calculate the average annual number of hours for each employee, since these data are not available at the state level. EH_S (total hours worked by all employees in the state during the calendar year) was calculated as:

EH_S = HW_N x E_S where
      E_S = State employment (from LAUS)
      HW_N = average annual number of hours for each employee at the national level (from CPS)

Fatal injury rate limitations

State industry rates are not directly comparable to national industry rates. Because state rates include government workers in their respective industry and are not broken out separately, both the numerator and denominator include a different group of workers than that of the national rates. State industry rates are not comparable to other states because of the large differences in the industry composition of employment by state.

There are several limitations of using CPS data in CFOI rate calculations. LAUS estimates for states are derived from signal-plus-noise models that use the monthly employment and unemployment measures tabulated from the CPS as the primary input and therefore the caveats from CPS apply to the LAUS data as well.

State of residence versus state of incident: The CPS counts workers by their state of residence, whereas the CFOI counts workers by state of incident.
Primary job versus job at the time of incident: The CPS annual average employment data used in the rate calculations count workers according to their primary job, whereas CFOI uses the job held when fatally injured.
Employment sampling errors: The CPS data uses a sample of households, therefore the CPS estimates, and the fatal injury rates based on them, have sampling errors.

For more information on how state rates are calculated and employment data limitations see the BLS Handbook of Methods: https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/calculation.htm.

For more information on CPS and LAUS see their sections in the BLS Handbook of Methods: https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cps/home.htm and https://www.bls.gov/opub/hom/lau/home.htm.

Last Modified Date: December 16, 2020