According to data synthesized by Eurostat, France is, in absolute value, the country of Europe where one has died the most at work: more than 8,000 dead since 2009, largely before Italy (7,000) and Germany (6,000). By bringing this back to the population, the situation is not much more brilliant: France is then in the second worst place in the ranking, after Malta.
With a rate of 4.38 dead per 100,000 employees in 2022, France is very largely above its German (0.95), Spanish (2.80) and Italian (2.50) neighbors.
This overwhelming observation for occupational safety in France, which confirms the figures of 2023 (759 dead) can however be nuanced by the difficulty of international comparisons of this kind. Eurostat has done data harmonization work, but those provided by statistical organizations in different countries are not necessarily equivalent. As Dares indicate, the definition of an accident at work can vary depending on the country. Thus, in Germany, the link between the fatal accident and professional activity must be proven to be recognized as a work accident while in France, the definition is much broader. And the delay between the event and the death is also much more restrictive in Germany.
In France, according to health insurance data, it is in manual construction activities but also in transport and storage that the deadly risk is the highest for employees. It should be noted that this data only covers employees in the private sector, therefore not civil servants, nor the self -employed.
More than half of the dead at work in France concern people carrying out construction, manufacturing or transport activities. And these sectors are also those or the number of deaths at work per employee is the highest.
