Fatal work injuries totaled 183 in 2022 for Pennsylvania, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Alexandra Hall Bovee noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Pennsylvania was up from 162 the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 354 in 1994 to a low of 148 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).

  

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

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2013	183	140	43
2014	179	137	42
2015	173	146	27
2016	163	130	33
2017	172	133	39
2018	177	138	39
2019	154	128	26
2020	148	107	41
2021	162	138	24
2022	183	147	36

In Pennsylvania, transportation incidents resulted in 77 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.

The second-most common fatal events were exposure to harmful substances or environments and contact with objects and equipment, each accounting for 27 fatalities. Worker fatalities due to exposure to harmful substances or environments were up from 24 over the year, while work-related deaths from contact with objects or equipment were down from 29 the previous year. Falls, slips, or trips was the third-most frequent fatal work event with 24 fatalities, down from 30 in the prior year. Violence and other injuries by persons or animals resulted in 22 workplace fatalities.

Nationally, transportation incidents was 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 violence and other injuries by persons or animals along with exposure to harmful substances or environments (15 percent each).

  

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

Event	United States	Pennsylvania
Transportation incidents	38	42
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15	15
Contact with objects and equipment	14	15
Falls, slips, trips	16	13
All other	18	15

The private transportation and warehousing industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in Pennsylvania with 54, up from 34 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Transportation incidents resulted in 40 of the 54 fatalities in the industry. The general freight trucking, long-distance industry group accounted for 30 of the 54 fatal workplace injuries in the transportation and warehousing industry.

The private construction industry sector had 28 fatal workplace injuries, down from 29 in the previous year. The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 21, or 75 percent, of the fatal injuries in this industry.

The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 72. (See table 3.) Drivers/sales workers and truck drivers accounted for 56 of the 72 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers. The construction and extraction occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 28. Construction trades workers suffered 21 of the work-related deaths within the construction and extraction group.

• Men accounted for 90 percent of the work-related fatalities in Pennsylvania, similar to the national share. (See table 4.) Transportation incidents made up 42 percent of the fatalities for men in Pennsylvania.
• White non-Hispanics accounted for 69 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. Nationwide, this group accounted for 58 percent of work-related deaths.
• Workers 25-54 years old accounted for 49 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2022, compared to 57 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.
• Of the 183 fatal work injuries in Pennsylvania, 80 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. Transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal event for wage and salary workers and for self-employed workers.

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 Pennsylvania Department of 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.

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