2.4% of EU people reported at least one work accident in 2020 (Eurostat figures)

In 2020, 2.4% of the people employed or those not employed but who had worked during the year before the interview in the EU reported at least one accident at work in the previous 12 months, a significantly lower share than 2.8% recorded in 2013, which can be partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This information comes from data published by Eurostat on accidents at work and work-related health problems from the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) ad-hoc module.

The occupational category with the highest share of people reporting an accident at work at EU level in 2020 was the craft and related trades workers (4.4%), followed by the plant and machine operators and assemblers and the skilled agricultural and fishery workers (both 3.4%). People with elementary occupations (3.3%) also recorded a share exceeding 3% in 2020.

At a national level, the broad group of skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers, craft and related trades workers recorded the highest share of people reporting an accident in 15 out of 18 EU Member States for which data is available for all groups.

Focusing only on this occupational group, the highest shares of people reporting an accident were recorded in Finland (19.1%), Sweden (11.7%) and Luxembourg (10.2%). By contrast, shares below 2% were found in Latvia, Croatia, Romania, Hungary and Lithuania.

The most common physical risk factor at work

For 13.2% of the workers at the EU level, tiring or painful positions were the most serious risk factor for their physical health at work.

This was followed by activities involving strong visual concentration (10.0%), handling of heavy loads (9.1%) and repetitive hand or arm movements (8.7%).