Two numbers in the same unit
A comparison only means something when both sides share a denominator. ILOSTAT and Eurostat publish rates per 100,000 workers; the table below is read from those two datasets.
| Country / area | Fatal (per 100,000 workers) | Non-fatal (per 100,000 workers) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Türkiye | 11.47 | 4,409.18 | 2024 |
| EU-27 | 1.64 | 1,392.49 | 2023 |
| France | 3.61 | 2,621.94 | 2024 |
| Italy | 2.01 | 1,098.17 | 2024 |
| Spain | 1.89 | 2,240.82 | 2024 |
| Poland | 1.77 | 464.86 | 2024 |
| Germany | 0.64 | 1,347.56 | 2024 |
| Netherlands | 0.32 | 1,033.53 | 2024 |
Three findings from the table
- Türkiye's fatal injury rate is roughly seven times the EU-27 value (11.47 against 1.64).
- Within the EU the highest fatal rate is France's 3.61 and the lowest is the Netherlands' 0.32; the median EU member sits at 1.47. Türkiye is outside that range entirely.
- The gap is smaller for non-fatal injuries (4,409.18 against 1,392.49, about 3.2 times). Non-fatal rates depend heavily on reporting culture: very low values such as Romania's 65.34 and Bulgaria's 87.26 may reflect fewer reports rather than safer workplaces.
The spread inside the EU is wide as well: the fatal rate is 3.61 in France but 0.64 in Germany, 0.75 in Sweden and 0.32 in the Netherlands. An 'EU average' is therefore not one performance level but a broad range, and a target is more informative when it is set against countries with a similar sector mix.
What we are not comparing
SGK's frequency rate of 15.39 cannot be placed in this table; it is measured per one million working hours. US data (BLS) is in yet another unit: 2.6 recordable cases per 100 full-time workers and 5,070 fatal work injuries in 2024. Three systems use three denominators, so each number only means something together with its unit.
Scope differs too: Eurostat's non-fatal definition is built on accidents with more than three days of absence, while SGK counts every reported occupational accident. The difference between the two numbers is therefore not identical to the difference in safety performance.
The full country list is on the global OHS statistics page, Türkiye breakdowns are on the Türkiye OHS statistics page, and every dataset is in the statistics hub.