Fatal work injuries totaled 125 in 2022 for Wisconsin, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Jason Palmer noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Wisconsin was up from the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 138 in 1993 to a low of 77 in 2008. 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, Wisconsin, 2013–22

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2013	97	69	28
2014	99	59	40
2015	104	65	39
2016	105	67	38
2017	106	66	40
2018	114	78	36
2019	113	77	36
2020	108	64	44
2021	105	84	21
2022	125	93	32

In Wisconsin, transportation incidents resulted in 42 fatal work injuries and accounted for 34 percent of all fatal workplace injuries. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Worker deaths from transportation incidents were up from 36 over the year.

Contact with objects and equipment resulted in 23 fatalities, up from 18 in 2021. Exposure to harmful substances or environments accounted for 20 fatalities, up from 13 in the prior year. Violence and other injuries by persons or animals resulted in 19 work-related deaths compared to 21 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 were 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 Wisconsin, 2022

Event	United States	Wisconsin
Transportation incidents	38	34
Contact with objects and equipment	14	18
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15	16
Violence and other injuries by persons or animals	16	15
All other	18	17

The private agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry sector had the highest number of fatalities in Wisconsin with 23, up from 13 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Contact with objects or equipment resulted in 9 of the 23 fatalities in the industry. The cattle ranching and farming industry group accounted for 10 of the 23 fatal workplace injuries in the agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting industry.

The private construction industry sector had 16 fatal workplace injuries, down from 17 in the previous year, followed by the manufacturing industry sector with 15 fatal workplace injuries, up from 7 in the previous year. The specialty trade contractors subsector accounted for 11, or 69 percent, of the fatal injuries in the private construction industry. Within the private manufacturing industry sector, both the food manufacturing subsector and the fabricated metal product manufacturing subsector had four fatal work injuries.

The transportation and material moving occupational group had the highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 22. (See table 3.) Motor vehicle operators accounted for 15 of the 22 fatalities among transportation and material moving workers. The construction and extraction occupational group had the second-highest number of fatal workplace injuries with 20. Construction trades workers suffered 16 of the 20 work-related deaths within the construction and extraction group.

• Men accounted for 93 percent of the work-related fatalities in Wisconsin, similar to the national share. (See table 4.)
• White non-Hispanics accounted for 78 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 50 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2022, compared to 35 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.
• Of the 125 fatal work injuries in Wisconsin, 74 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed. The most frequent fatal event for wage and salary workers was transportation incidents; contact with objects and equipment was the most frequent fatal event 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 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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