5 Takeaways: By the Numbers

• The number of fatalities in roofing rose by 8% from 2022
• Roofing is the third deadliest civilian occupation
• The majority of roofing deaths occurred due to a fall, slip or trip
• Construction saw the largest number of Hispanic and Latino deaths
• Nationally, a worker died every 99 minutes from a work-related injury in 2023

The roofing industry remains one of the top three most fatal occupations in the United States, and according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it continues to see increases in workplace fatalities.

The 2024 “Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries Summary” report from the BLS shows the roofing industry experienced 134 workplace fatalities in 2023, marking an 8% increase from 124 in 2022. In the previous year, that increase was 7.8%.

The ´24 figure calculates to a rate of 51.8 fatal injuries per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers in the roofing industry. The only other civilian occupations with higher fatality rates are logging workers (98.9) and fishing and hunting workers (86.9). Despite this grim news, there is a silver lining — the 2023 rate is lower than 2022’s rate of 57.5, and roofing dropped from having the second-highest rating to having the third-highest.

The report broke out different industry segments to call out specific incidents. A total of 32 fatal injuries claimed the lives of residential roofing contractors, a 3% decrease from 2022 (33). In the nonresidential roofing sector, 21 fatalities occurred, up 10% from 2022 (19).

Types of Injuries

The report tracks the previous year’s fatal workplace fatalities and their causes. Of the 134 fatalities in roofing, 110 were caused by a fall, slip or trip. That means 82% of fatalities in roofing happened because of a fall last year. The number of fatal falls is up 10% from 2022 when there were 100 incidents.

Aside from falls, 13 fatalities were caused by exposure to harmful substances or environments. The data doesn’t detail the cause of the remaining five deaths.

Twenty-seven of the 32 fatalities in residential roofing were caused by a fall, slip or trip, down 37% from 2022. In nonresidential roofing, 17 fatalities were caused by a fall, up 13% from 2022.

In 2023, there were 885 fatal falls, slips and trips across all industries, up 2.3 percent from 2022. Roofing contractors accounted for 12.4 percent of the nation’s fatal falls.

Industry vs Occupation

A slightly different story emerges when viewing the data by occupation versus industry. This data shows 113 workplace fatalities occurred to “roofers,” with 95 of those deaths (84%) caused by a fall, slip or trip and another 13 (11%) by exposure to harmful substances or environments. The data doesn’t report the causes of the remaining five fatalities.

These numbers have increased since 2022, when 105 roofer fatalities were tracked, and 90 were caused by a fall.

Construction Fatalities on the Rise

The construction industry experienced 1,075 fatalities in 2023, 1.7% higher than the previous year. That equates to a fatal injury rate of 9.6 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. Construction had the most fatalities among all industry sectors in 2023 and was the highest for the sector going back to 2011.

Falls, slips, and trips accounted for 39.2% (421) of all construction fatalities, with transportation incidents accounting for another 22.3% (240). This is consistent with data from OSHA, which says its most frequently cited standard in 2023 was fall protection in construction. A total of 7,188 violations were cited.

Construction also has the highest number of Hispanic or Latino worker fatalities among all private industries (410). According to the report, foreign-born Hispanic or Latino workers made up 67.1% (839) of all Hispanic or Latino worker fatalities (1,250). Fatalities in the private construction industry sector accounted for 37.5% (315) of the 839 foreign-born Hispanic or Latino worker deaths.

National Numbers

According to the BLS, a worker died every 99 minutes from a work-related injury in 2023 compared to 96 minutes in 2022. There were 5,283 fatal work injuries recorded in the U.S. in 2023, a 3.7% decrease from 5,486 in 2022.

Transportation incidents were the most frequent fatal event, accounting for 36.8% (1,942) of all occupational fatalities in 2023.

Opioids were the primary source of 162 fatalities and a contributor to an additional 144 deaths where multiple drugs were the source.

The national fatal injury rate for Hispanic or Latino workers decreased from 2022 to 2023, down from 4.6 to 4.4 cases per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers.

Transportation incidents were the highest cause of fatalities for both Black or African-American (261) and Hispanic or Latino (390) workers in 2023. The industry with the most fatalities for Black or African-American workers was transportation and warehousing (200).