Fatal work injuries totaled 15 in 2021 for Hawaii, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Regional Commissioner Chris Rosenlund noted that the number of work-related fatalities in Hawaii was down from 16 the previous year. (See chart 1.) Fatal occupational injuries in the state have ranged from a high of 41 in 2001 to a low of 11 in 2013. Nationwide, a total of 5,190 fatal work injuries were recorded in 2021, a 9-percent increase from 4,764 in 2020, 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, Hawaii, 2012–21

Year	Total	Wage and salary	Self-employed
2012	20	17	3
2013	11	11
2014	31	25	6
2015	18	18
2016	29	28
2017	20	18
2018	22	20	2
2019	26
2020	16	16
2021	15	12	3

In Hawaii, exposure to harmful substances or environments resulted in four fatal work injuries. Transportation incidents and contact with objects and equipment accounted for three fatalities each. These three major categories accounted for 67 percent of all fatal workplace injuries in the state. (See chart 2 and table 1.) Worker fatalities due to transportation incidents were down from seven in 2020.

Nationally, transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal event in 2021, accounting for 38 percent of fatal work injuries. Falls, slips, and trips was the second-most common fatal event (16 percent), followed by both exposure to harmful substances or environments and violence and other injuries by persons or animals (15 percent each) and contact with objects and equipment (14 percent).

View Chart Data

Chart 2. Percent distribution of total fatal occupational injuries by event, United States and Hawaii, 2021

Event	United States	Hawaii
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	15.4	26.7
Transportation incidents	38.2	20.0
Contact with objects and equipment	13.6	20.0
#REF!	#REF!	#REF!
All other	32.9	33.3

The private industry sector had 13 fatalities in Hawaii, up from 12 in the previous year. (See table 2.) Exposure to harmful substances or environments resulted in 4 of the 13 fatalities in the private industry.

The installation, maintenance, and repair occupational group had three fatal workplace injuries. (See table 3.)

• Asian non-Hispanics accounted for 33 percent of those who died from a workplace injury. (See table 4.) Nationwide, this group accounted for 3 percent of work-related deaths.
• Workers 55-64 years old accounted for 27 percent of the state’s work-related fatalities in 2021, compared to 22 percent of on-the-job fatalities nationally.
• Of the 15 fatal work injuries in Hawaii, 80 percent worked for wages and salaries; the remainder were self-employed.

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 2021 national data, over 23,900 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 at www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/home.htm and the CFOI definitions at www.bls.gov/iif/definitions/occupational-safety-and-health-definitions.htm.

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 www.bls.gov/iif/overview/cfoi-scope.htm and www.bls.gov/opub/hom/cfoi/concepts.htm.

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 2021, there were 197 cases nationally where this occurred, and 174 of these latent cases occurred more than 30 days prior to the start of 2021. For more information on latent cases, see www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-10/latency-in-fatal-occupational-injuries.htm.

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 at www.bls.gov/covid19/effects-of-covid-19-on-workplace-injuries-and-illnesses-compensation-and-occupational-requirements.htm.

Acknowledgments. BLS thanks the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism 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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