Report on the economic activities with the highest risk of accidents
The National Institute of Safety and Health at Work (INSST) has recently published the technical document entitled: "Priority activities based on accidents. Data 2024" which focuses on the accidents suffered in Spain last year and identifies the groups with the most probability of suffering workplace accidents and in which a greater number of workers are concentrated.
This information is strategic to guide the actions of social agents and continue progress in the prevention of occupational risks based on the analysis of objective figures. In addition, the work presents data by sex, which allows a detailed analysis of the differences in accident rates between women and men in an area in which the gender perspective is especially relevant.
The report is based on the number of accidents with sick leave (minor, serious and fatal) recorded during the working day in Spain in 2024, which were a total of 556,385, which represents an incidence rate of 2,733.7 accidents per 100,000 working people. Thus it is observed that l___the sectors that concentrated the highest accident rate and population at risk were building construction, specialized construction, the food industry, assistance in residential establishments and hosting services. It must be taken into account that e___these activities bring together more than 2.5 million workers, which makes them areas of special interest preventive.
Women suffered a total of 164,095 work accidents that led to sick leave, with an incidence of 1,722.4 per 100,000 workers, in this case the priority activities from a preventive point of view being assistance in residential establishments, accommodation services, the food industry, of social services without accommodation and services to buildings and gardening activities.
In the case of men, the incidence rate was 3,623.6 per 100,000 workers, with a total of 392,290 accidents recorded and the sectors with the highest accident rate and number of workers were the manufacturing of metal products (except machinery and equipment), building construction, construction activities specialized, the food industry and building services and gardening activities.
As for the number of serious and fatal accidents that occurred during the work day last year, it was 4,583, which represents an incidence rate of 22.5 per 100,000 working people. The sectors with the highest accident rate and affected workers were building construction, specialized construction activities, land and pipeline transportation, and agriculture, livestock, hunting, and related services.
