OSHA Data & Research

US work deaths in 2024 — and why the #1 killer, transportation, is the hazard OSHA regulates least.

Recorded injuries for every death; a record-low 2.5 million cases in 2024.

OSHA logs ~27 maimings a day — and the data covers only half of US workers.

Falls rank first in deaths, citations, and penalty dollars — all at once.

The average fall citation is the smallest cost a fall actually imposes.

The cost of injury is three numbers 3× apart — and companies budget against the smallest.

Workers the proposed 80°F/90°F heat rule would cover — still not final.

How long the only US ergonomics standard survived; MSDs remain the #1 injury.

Workers 65+ die at roughly triple the average rate; risk isn't shared evenly.

Homicides rose to 470 in 2024 — the one major fatal hazard OSHA still has no standard for.

OSHA's preliminary FY2026 top 10 lists the order and no numbers. Our count of federal citations from DOL data, 29 CFR 1926.501 first, with the same months a year earlier. CSV and JSON.

OSHA's #2 standard overall is only #9 in construction — 698 citations, the state-plan table, and the Maryland outlier. Downloadable report.

The hazard communication rule each State Plan cites in place of 1910.1200, its source, and how its citations show up in OSHA's data.

26,559 citations; fall protection alone drove 41% of the penalty dollars.

Construction's second-deadliest hazard is absent from the top-cited construction standards — why enforcement sees static conditions, not moving equipment.

A 10-ft Type C trench must open 33 ft wide to be sloped legally — why Subpart P's first option is unavailable on most real sites.

The reference sheet — every verified FY2025 construction enforcement figure.

Inspections that became 26,559 citations — how one turns into the other.

1,651 inspectors for 12M workplaces; federal OSHA reaches each of its sites once every 191 years.

A randomized trial: inspections cut injuries 9.4% and costs 26%, with no job loss.

Heat, violence, infectious disease — stuck in a pipeline that averages 7+ years per rule.

Fall protection tops OSHA's Top 10 for fiscal year 2025: what the list says, and how to use it.

Stuck at $7,000 from 1990 to 2016, then indexed to today's serious max.

Severity × probability, decoded into an actual dollar figure.

California highest at $25k; four states still at the old $7,000.

The spread in penalty-per-citation across state plans; Michigan's $444 fingerprint.

Construction HazCom citations issued by Maryland's state plan alone, outside the 698 of federal OSHA's jurisdiction.

Each state's enforcement signature, rendered as a citation heatmap.

Chemicals with an OSHA limit — most set in 1968; the 1989 update was struck down.

No OSHA workplace limit for any PFAS — versus 4 parts per trillion in drinking water.

NYC lithium-battery fires in 2024; no OSHA standard, but HazCom applies.

Not one deadline but four, 2026–2028; HazCom is the #2 most-cited standard.

5,070 counted deaths vs an estimated 120,000 uncounted occupational-disease deaths.

How to audit an SDS library for the gaps that draw citations.