Facts + Statistics: Workplace Safety/Workers Comp

Workers Compensation Insurance

Workers compensation insurance provides for the cost of medical care and rehabilitation for injured workers and lost wages and death benefits for the dependents of persons killed in work-related accidents. Workers compensation systems vary from state to state. Workers compensation combined ratios are expressed in two ways. Calendar year results reflect claim payments and changes in reserves for accidents that happened in that year or earlier. Accident year results only include losses from a particular year.

Workers Compensation Insurance, 2014-2023

($000)

			Combined ratio (1)
Year	Net premiums written (2)	Annual percent change	Calendar year (3)	Annual point change (4)	Accident year (5)	Annual point change
2014	$43,753,885	6.3%	101.9	-1.2 pts.	88	-5 pts.
2015	45,355,102	3.7	95.5	-6.4	85	-3
2016	45,619,831	0.6	95.6	0.1	84	-1
2017	45,047,380	-1.3	92.2	-3.4	86	2
2018	48,614,131	7.9	86.3	-5.8	88	2
2019	47,146,756	-3.0	88.3	2.0	93	5
2020	42,529,620	-9.8	90.2	1.9	95	2
2021	43,159,123	1.5	91.5	1.3	100	5
2022	47,604,071	10.3	87.4	-4.0	97	-3
2023	47,975,234	0.8	88.1	0.7	98	1

(1) After reinsurance transactions, excludes state funds.
(2) After dividends to policyholders. A drop in the combined ratio represents an improvement; an increase represents a deterioration.
(3) Calendar year data from S&P Global Market Intelligence
(4) Calculated from unrounded data.
(5) Accident year data from the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI).
(6) Estimated by NCCI.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute; National Council on Compensation Insurance.

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Top 10 Writers Of Workers' Compensation Insurance By Direct Premiums Written, 2023

($000)

Rank	Group/company	Direct premiums written (1)	Market share (2)
1	Travelers Companies Inc.	$3,866,715	6.9%
2	Hartford Financial Services	3,771,338	6.7
3	AmTrust Financial	3,425,170	6.1
4	Zurich Insurance Group	2,923,371	5.2
5	Chubb Ltd.	2,353,775	4.2
6	Liberty Mutual	2,092,716	3.7
7	Berkshire Hathaway Inc.	2,057,229	3.7
8	Accident Fund Group	1,670,454	3.0
9	Old Republic International Corp.	1,471,605	2.6
10	Great American Insurance Group	1,413,442	2.5

(1) Before reinsurance transactions, includes state funds.
(2) Based on U.S. total, excluding territories. State Insurance Fund Workers' Compensation Fund in New York is not included in the rankings because data for the company has currently not been publicly released.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

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Workers Compensation Benefits, Coverage And Costs, 2021

	2021	Percent change, 2017-2021
Covered workers (000)	140,227	-0.1%
Covered wages ($ billions)	$9,497	22.0
Workers compensation benefits paid ($ billions)	60.0	-4.3
Medical benefits	28.5	-9.3
Cash benefits	31.5	0.7
Employer costs for workers compensation ($ billions)	96.0	-5.6

Source: Workers Compensation: Benefits, Coverage, and Costs, February 2024, National Academy of Social Insurance.

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Top 10 Private Industry Occupations With The Largest Number Of Injuries And Illnesses, 2021-2022

Rank	Occupation	Number (1)	Percent of total
1	Service	538,380	24.0%
2	Transportation and material moving	503,610	22.4
3	Production	223,840	10.0
4	Healthcare practitioners and technical	223,680	10.0
5	Installation, maintenance, and repair	163,140	7.3
6	Sales and related	146,310	6.5
7	Construction and extraction	136,570	6.1
8	Office and administrative support	101,970	4.5
9	Management, business, and financial	101,460	4.5
10	Education, legal, community service, arts, and media	54,400	2.4
	Total top 10	2,193,360	97.6%
	Total all occupations	2,246,900	100.0%

(1) Cases with days away from work.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Causes of Workplace Deaths

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, transportation related accidents (including vehicle crashes) were the leading cause of workplace deaths in 2022, with 2,066 fatalities, accounting for 38 percent of total workplace deaths.

Workplace Deaths By Selected Cause, 2021-2022 (1)

	2021	2022
Cause	Number	Number	Percent of total
All transportation (includes vehicle crashes)	1,982	2,066	38%
Vehicle crashes (2)	1,253	1,369	25
Falls	850	865	16
Contact with objects and equipment	705	738	14
Exposure to harmful substances or environments	798	839	15
Intentional injury by person (includes homicides)	718	791	14
Homicides	481	524	10
Fires and explosions	76	707	13
Total workplace fatalities	5,190	5,486	100%

(1) From intentional and unintentional sources. Data in this chart do not add to total workplace fatalities due to the inclusion of miscellaneous injuries in the total.
(2) Roadway incidents involving motorized land vehicles.

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.

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Large Loss Fires

The chart below shows the costliest large-loss fires, many of which involve industrial facilities and other non-residential structures. The rankings are based on property loss data from the National Fire Protection Association. For further data see NFPA statistics.

Top 10 Costliest Large-Loss Fires, 2021 (1)

($ millions)

Rank	State	Month	Type of facility	Estimated loss
1	Colorado	December	Wildland/urban interface, Marshall Fire	$678.0
2	Illinois	June	Chemical manufacturing	160.0
3	California	November	Textile manufacturing	128.0
4	Wisconsin	February	Ship in for repairs	100.0
5	Tennessee	July	Cereal manufacturing	98.6
6	Nevada	January	Apartments under construction	35.0
7	Tennessee	March	Rubber manufacturing	35.0
8	Colorado	October	Apartment building (81 units)	30.2
9	Texas	February	Warehouse with foam products	26.0
10	California	January	Restaurant	25.2

(1) Large-loss fires of $20 million or more in 2021.

Note: Loss data shown here may differ from figures shown elsewhere for the same event due to differences in the date of publication, the geographical area covered and other criteria used by organizations collecting the data.

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