Fatal workplace accidents in Spain up by 10% in 2024 resulting in nearly 800 deaths

The workplace accident rate in Spain continues to rise year after year. Deaths due to such accidents increased by 10.4% in 2024. Nine out of ten of the cases concerned men. According to statistics published by the Ministry of Labour on Thursday 13 February, the number of workers who died during their shift or while commuting to work was 796, compared to 721 in 2023.

The number of deaths far exceeds the number of accidents resulting in injury, which increased by 0.5% compared to last year. The definition of fatal accidents also includes deaths occurring up to 12 months after the accident, so the CC OO workers union estimates that this figure will rise to "well over" 800, once the consolidated data is available. Industry and services are the sectors where occupational mortality has grown the most, with an increase of 18.8% and 12.7%, respectively, compared to 2023.

Deaths during the working day rose by 11.2%, while 'in itinere' deaths - those occurring on the commute to and from work - rose by 7.1% year on year. On the other hand, deaths among the self-employed fell by 10.8%, compared with a sharp increase of 12.8% among employees.

According to the statistics, most of the fatal accidents are caused by blows by objects (up 109%), drowning in a liquid, which increased by 20%, or entrapment, crushing or amputations, which increased by 13.8%.

However, the figures also show that this higher accident rate is due to the increase in the number of workers. If we analyse the data per 100,000 people employed, "the accident rate during working hours has fallen by 2.3%". The accident rate has fallen the most in the mining industries (8%), followed by health and social services, with 5.6% fewer accidents than in 2023.