Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 65 
Figure 21: Development of the total number of non -fatal accidents at work and incidence rates (accidents 
per 100,000 workers), 1998 and 2019 – Eurostat 
 
 
Still today we can see incident rates above average in sectors  like construction and manufacturing, 
wholesale and retail, transport and storage, and agriculture including forestry and fishing. These are 
sectors where work with dangerous working conditions is qu ite common, that is, use or handling of 
heavy or dangerous equipment (sharp, fast, moving, rotating, high- pressure, hot, etc.), work at height, 
work on slippery ground, work with electrical equipment, transport and so on.  
The ESAW statistics demonstrate t hat sectoral differences are still very relevant .141 The sectoral 
incident rates differed between 1,448 for the sector ‘Public administration, defence, and compulsory 
social security’ (Sector O) and are highest in ‘Construction’ (Sector F) at 3,211. In the period between 
2010 and 2019 the rate for all sectors dropped from 1,799 to 1,603, that is, 11%. The sectoral rates 
developed as follows: