Occupational safety and health in Europe - state and trends 2023 
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work – EU-OSHA 91 
4.3.2 Health affected – overall opinion  
The self-assessment of health risks at work is a question in the EWCS. According to the responses to 
the EWCS 2015, work is regarded by exactly one- quarter (25%) of the workers in the EU as a health 
risk. (The OSH Barometer provides more details; links in the text box at the end of this chapter.)  
The countries with the lowest percentage of perceived affection of health at work  are Portugal at 
15%; below or around 20% are also Italy, Ireland and Czechia, Germany, Hungary and Romania. The 
countries with the highest percentage of perceived health risks at work are Latvia (41%), followed by 
Spain and Slovenia (both 38%), Lithuania (37%), and Estonia, France and Malta (all 35%).  
At EU level the aggregated sectors  ‘Construction and Transport’ show the highest figures (35%) and 
‘Commerce / Hospitality ’ (20%) and ‘Financial / Other services’ the lowest (20 %). Th ese sectoral 
differences repeat in most countries.  
 
Figure 30: ‘Health at risk’, sectoral responses for EU and three countries – EWCS 2015252