Health and Safety at Work in Europe (1999-2007): A Statistical Portrait

Date Published: 
Fri, 01/01/2010

European Commission. 2010.

Health and safety at work in Europe (1999-2007): A statistical portrait” is an extraordinarily detailed report that gives a good idea of just how far behind the U.S. in comparison to other developed nations. In 2007, 5,580 EU workers died in a fatal accidents, out of a population of 497 million. That same year, 5,488 American workers died out of a population of 301. 3 million.

That’s almost 200 hundred million fewer people! We only lost 92 fewer workers than the EU despite a colossal difference in population. Admittedly, international comparisons can be tricky. Record keeping often differs dramatically between depending on what agency, within what country (or wider political entity) is keeping tack. Keep that in mind when making comparisons. However, according to many experts in the field European estimates tend to be more accurate than ours. The American surveillance system is much less adept than the European systems, which can often rely on a single, unified health care system that ensures complete reporting.