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Comparisons with other countries

The UK compares favourably to other European countries in health and safety standards...

Standardised incidence rate (per 100,000 workers) of work-related fatal injuries for 2018, excluding road traffic accidents and accidents on board transport in the course of work1
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(Eurostat, ESAW 2018, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/[26])

Percentage of workers who had a workplace injury resulting in time off work in the previous 12 months
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(Eurostat, EU/UK LFS, 2020, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat[27])

Percentage of workers suffering from a work-related health problem resulting in time off work
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(Eurostat, EU/UK LFS, 2020, http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/[28])

More information on comparisons with other countries

Health and safety systems differ across Europe in recording, reporting and enforcement. Thus, the European Statistical Office (Eurostat) publishes data on work-related fatalities, ill health and workplace non-fatal injuries in as standardised a form as possible to account for these differences. Data available from Eurostat shows the UK's historical performance is favourable compared to countries across Europe, with relatively low rates of work-related fatalities, injuries and ill health.

  • In 2018, the UK standardised fatality rate of 0.61 per 100,000 workers was amongst the lowest of all European countries and compares favourably with most large economies, such as France, Italy, Spain and Poland. Germany had a lower rate at 0.55 per 100,000 workers
  • In 2020, the UK rates2 of non-fatal workplace injuries and work-related ill health, resulting in time off work, compared favourably with many European countries
  • Supporting data is also available from surveys conducted by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound) and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA). These reveal that most UK workers are confident that their job does not put their health or safety at risk. Additionally, UK businesses are more likely to have a health and safety policy, and to follow this up with formal risk assessment, compared to other European countries

Notes

  1. The overall GB rate of fatal injuries published by HSE for 2018/19 was 0.46 per 100,000 workers; the standardised rate published by Eurostat accounts for variation in industry composition across European countries. Back
  2. See the full European Comparisons (PDF) [29] document for further technical details on the 2020 Labour Force Survey (LFS) figures for the UK. Back

The EU-27 average comparator uses the 27 countries in the European Union (EU) from 2020 onwards and so excludes the United Kingdom. Data for non-EU countries are suffixed with * in charts.

Link URLs in this page

  1. Statisticshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/index.htm
  2. Statistics A - Zhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/a-z.htm
  3. Index of data tableshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/tables/index.htm
  4. Ill healthhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/causdis/index.htm
  5. Overview - COVID-19https://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/coronavirus/index.htm
  6. Management informationhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/coronavirus/management-information.htm
  7. Overview - Fatal injurieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/fatals.htm
  8. Latest quarterly fatal injury figureshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/fatalquarterly.htm
  9. Overview - Non-fatal injuryhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/causinj/index.htm
  10. Violence at workhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/causinj/violence/index.htm
  11. Costs to Britainhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/cost.htm
  12. Industrieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/industry/index.htm
  13. Countries and regions of Britainhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/regions/index.htm
  14. Comparisons with other countrieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/european/index.htm
  15. Historical picturehttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/history/index.htm
  16. Overview - About HSE Statisticshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/about.htm
  17. Data sourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/sources.htm
  18. Overview - National statistics policieshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/about/index.htm
  19. Revisionshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/about/revisions/index.htm
  20. Confidentiality policyhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/about/confidentiality.htm
  21. Overview - User engagementhttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/about/engagement/index.htm
  22. Reports from previous user consultationshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/about/engagement/previous-consultations.htm
  23. Quality guidelineshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/about/quality-guidelines.htm
  24. Statement of administrative sourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/about/administrative-sources.htm
  25. Research and ad hoc analysishttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/resources.htm
  26. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/HSW_MI03/default/table?lang=en&category=hlth.hsw.hsw_acc_work.hsw_mi
  27. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostathttps://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/HSW_AC2/default/table?lang=en&category=hlth.hsw.hsw_apex.hsw_ac
  28. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/HSW_PB2/default/table?lang=en&category=hlth.hsw.hsw_apex.hsw_pb
  29. European Comparisonshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/assets/docs/european-comparisons.pdf
  30. Full report on European Comparisons https://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/assets/docs/european-comparisons.pdf
  31. Comparisons with other countries tableshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/Statistics/tables/index.htm#other-countries
  32. Data Sourceshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/sources.htm
  33. Index of tableshttps://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/tables/index.htm

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Updated 2025-02-18