SWA updates preliminary workplace fatalities data for 2024

Safe Work Australia has updated its preliminary fatalities dashboard to provide new insights into fatal injuries, and has released the first preliminary fatalities data for 2024. The figures show the latest estimate of workers fatally injured in Australian workplaces.

The dashboard provides data on the number of deaths that have occurred by industry; it also provides a breakdown of data by mechanism, along with five-year coverage to support comparisons over time. The preliminary findings reveal that there were 173 worker deaths in 2023; 75 of these fatalities were due to the mechanism ‘vehicle accident’, while 64% (111) of these fatalities occurred in three of 19 industries, including transport, postal and warehousing; construction; and agriculture, forestry and fishing.

The preliminary fatalities dashboard will be updated fortnightly with data for 2024, and can be accessed here. The preliminary data will also be updated as more information about fatalities in Australia is known. The total number of work-related fatalities may be higher once the data has been finalised for a given year.

Image credit: iStock.com/Milena Magazin