UK Fatal Injury Statistics 2025/26 | Statistics Summary & Key Takeaways

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published its annual figures for work-related fatal injuries, and the headline number is the lowest we have ever recorded outside the pandemic years: 126 workers were killed in work-related accidents in Great Britain in 2025/26. That is two fewer than the previous year, and it continues a long, hard-won decline from 495 deaths in 1981. It is genuine progress, and everyone who has worked to achieve it should take a moment to recognise that.

But I have spent close to forty years around these statistics, and I would ask you to read past the headline before you relax. Behind that record low sit the same industries, the same causes and the same vulnerable groups that have dominated this data for two decades. The public death toll has risen. And every one of these 126 is a person who did not come home. Here is what the numbers actually tell us — and what to do about it in your workplace.

Key Takeaways from the 2025/26 Figures

• 126 workers were killed at work in 2025/26 — down 2 on the year, and the lowest figure on record outside the pandemic period.
• Construction (25 deaths) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (22) again account for the largest shares, together making up nearly 40% of worker fatalities.
• Falls from height remain the single biggest killer, causing roughly a quarter of worker deaths — as they have almost every year since 2001/02.
• Self-employed workers and those aged 60 and over are dying at rates far above their share of the workforce.
• 104 members of the public were killed in work-related accidents — up 8 on the previous year, and the fourth consecutive annual rise.

What Are the HSE Fatal Injury Statistics — and Why Do They Matter?

Each year the HSE, Britain's workplace health and safety regulator, publishes the number of people killed in work-related accidents reported under RIDDOR — the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. The figures cover both workers and members of the public, and they are the clearest annual measure we have of how safe — or not — British workplaces really are.

Two things are worth understanding before you draw conclusions. First, these are accidents, not ill health: deaths from occupational disease, which run to an estimated 13,000 a year from past exposures alone, sit outside this count entirely. Second, the latest year is provisional. Fatal injuries are, thankfully, rare events, and a single year carries an element of natural variation — which is exactly why I always look at the five-year averages alongside the annual figure rather than reacting to one number in isolation.

Which Industries Are Still the Most Dangerous?

The absolute count tells a familiar story. Construction recorded 25 deaths and agriculture, forestry and fishing 22 — between them, just under 40% of all worker fatalities. Manufacturing (18) and transport and storage (15) follow. If you work in any of these sectors, the data is not abstract; it is describing your Monday morning.

Construction's 25 is notable: it sits well below the sector's five-year average of 37. That is encouraging, but I would caution anyone against declaring victory on the strength of one provisional year. The construction figure has always been volatile, and a single good year does not overturn a five-year pattern. Treat it as a reason to keep going, not a reason to ease off.

The count, though, hides the real risk picture. When you look at the rate — deaths per 100,000 workers — a different sector tops the table. Agriculture, forestry and fishing runs at around 8 deaths per 100,000, roughly 21 times the all-industry average. Waste and recycling sits at around 10 times the average. Construction, for all its headline numbers, is about 5 times the average. In other words: farming and waste are where a worker is most likely to be killed, even though construction reports more deaths overall. Both readings matter, and confusing one for the other leads people to the wrong priorities.

What's Actually Killing People at Work?

Around 80% of all worker deaths come down to just five accident types, and the top of that list has barely moved in twenty years:

• Falls from a height — 31 deaths, about a quarter of the total, and the leading cause in almost every year since 2001/02.
• Struck by a moving vehicle — 24 deaths. The single biggest killer in waste and recycling (nearly half of that sector's deaths) and in transport.
• Struck by a moving object — 21 deaths.
• Trapped by something collapsing or overturning — 18 deaths, heavily concentrated in agriculture, where vehicle overturns remain a persistent threat.
• Contact with moving machinery — 10 deaths.

The lesson I take from this consistency is not that we have failed — it is that these hazards are known, foreseeable and controllable. We are not being surprised by novel risks. People are still dying from the same handful of things we have been writing risk assessments about for a generation. That should sharpen the focus, not dull it.

Why Are Older and Self-Employed Workers More at Risk?

Two patterns in this year's data deserve far more attention than they usually get.

Self-employed workers made up around a third of all worker deaths while accounting for only about 15% of the workforce. Their fatal injury rate runs at roughly three times that of employees — and it is higher for the self-employed than for employees in every main industry sector. This is the safety gap I worry about most. A self-employed contractor often has no employer organising their training, no supervisor checking their method, and a tighter budget for the equipment that keeps them alive. The safety net that protects an employee simply isn't there.

Age is the second pattern. Workers aged 60 and over accounted for 32% of fatalities but only 12% of the workforce, and the rate for those aged 65 and over is around four times the all-ages rate. As our workforce ages, this is not a marginal issue — it is a design question for how we assign tasks, manage fatigue and think about physical capability on site.

What's Behind the Rise in Public Deaths?

While worker deaths fell, deaths among members of the public rose to 104 — an increase of 8, and the fourth consecutive annual rise from the pandemic low of 63 in 2020/21. Of these, 32 were on railways and the majority in service-sector settings, with a smaller number in agriculture, construction and waste.

This is the figure that too often gets left out of the conversation, because the public are not our employees. But they are on our sites, near our vehicles and around our machinery — and our duty of care under the Health and Safety at Work Act extends to them. If your operation touches the public in any way, this rising trend is your problem too.

How Should Health and Safety Professionals Respond?

Statistics are only worth reading if they change what you do on Monday. Here is where I would focus, whatever your sector:

• Go back to the fatal four. Falls, vehicles, moving objects and overturns cause the bulk of deaths. Re-examine your controls for these specifically — not as a paper exercise, but by walking the job and watching how work is actually done.
• Design for your real workforce. If you employ or contract older workers, factor physical capability and fatigue into task allocation. Don't assume the risk assessment written for a 30-year-old still holds.
• Bring the self-employed inside your safety culture. Extend inductions, method statements and equipment checks to every contractor on your site. Their statistical vulnerability becomes your liability the moment they step through the gate.
• Segregate people from plant. The rise in public deaths and the dominance of vehicle strikes point to the same fix: rigorous separation of pedestrians from moving vehicles, in your yard and at your boundary with the public.
• Invest in competence, not just compliance. Recognised training — from IOSH and NEBOSH qualifications through to task-specific working-at-height certification — remains one of the most reliable ways to move an organisation from reacting to hazards to anticipating them.

The Bottom Line

126 is the lowest non-pandemic figure Britain has ever recorded, and that reflects real, sustained effort across our profession. I don't want to diminish it. But a record low still means 126 families received the worst phone call of their lives, from causes we have understood for decades. The decline in worker deaths and the rise in public deaths, sitting side by side in the same report, are the clearest possible reminder that safety is never finished. It is renewed, or it is lost — one job, one decision, one workforce at a time.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many People Died at Work in the UK in 2025/26?

According to the HSE's provisional figures, 126 workers were killed in work-related accidents in Great Britain in 2025/26 — a decrease of 2 on the previous year and the lowest figure on record outside the pandemic years. A further 104 members of the public also died in work-related accidents.

Which Is the Most Dangerous Industry in the UK?

It depends how you measure it. Construction reports the highest number of deaths (25 in 2025/26), but by rate — deaths per 100,000 workers — agriculture, forestry and fishing is the most dangerous, running at roughly 21 times the all-industry average, followed by waste and recycling.

What Is the Most Common Cause of Workplace Death?

Falls from a height remain the leading cause, responsible for around a quarter of all worker fatalities in 2025/26 and the top cause in almost every year since 2001/02. Being struck by a moving vehicle or object follows closely behind.

Are the HSE Fatal Injury Figures Final?

No. The latest year's figures are published as provisional and marked with a 'p'. They are finalised the following year and can change by up to around 3%. For example, the 2024/25 figure was first published as 124 and has since been finalised at 128, so the latest year should always be read with that in mind.

Why Are Self-Employed Workers More at Risk?

Self-employed workers account for around a third of worker deaths despite being roughly 15% of the workforce, with a fatal injury rate about three times that of employees. This largely reflects their concentration in higher-risk sectors such as agriculture and construction, combined with less access to organised training, supervision and safety equipment.

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