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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

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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.

Source: Reproduced with permission from Large-Loss Fires and Explosions in the United States in 2021 by Stephen G. Badger, ©2023 National Fire Protection Association www.nfpa.org.

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