While workplace fatalities have been going down, the state you work in can be a big factor in how dangerous your job is.

The latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that there were 5,070 work-related fatalities in 2024, down from 5,283 a year earlier. Workers in construction or extraction were the most likely to have a fatal event while at work, with more than 1,000 fatal injuries among those professions. States with a number of workers in those professions tended to be more dangerous than other states, according to BLS data.

But which states are the most dangerous per 100,000 jobs? See which ones made the top of the list and which ones are the safest for workers, as reported by Visual Capitalist.

Oil and Gas Extraction Can Be Deadly

1. Wyoming – 13.9
2. Mississippi – 8.0
3. Alaska – 7.1
4. North Dakota – 6.8
5. Arkansas – 6.2

The fatal injury rate was 3.3 fatalities per 100,000 jobs in the U.S. in 2024, which was a decrease from the year before. But some states were well above that rate.

Wyoming, for example, leads the U.S. in most workplace fatalities by state with 13.9 fatalities per 100,000 jobs. A big reason for that high rate is the large number of oil and gas extraction positions in the state. In fact, around 30% of workplace deaths in the state occurred in mining and natural resource extraction. North Dakota, which saw 6.8 fatalities per 100,000 workers, had almost half of its workplace issues in natural resources and mining.

Natural resources jobs were also an issue in Alaska, with its fishing industry sustaining the most fatalities. Construction projects and trucking were major issues for workers in Mississippi.

A factor for many states is the prevalence of fatality incidents in industries that rely on heavy equipment, remote locations, and potentially hazardous operating conditions. States along long-haul transportation corridors also saw higher fatality rates due to industrial transportation, long-haul trucking, and working around warehouses.

Northeast States Stay Safer

States that rely more of office jobs or jobs that don’t rely on heavy machinery and transportation tend to do better when it comes to workplace fatalities. Below is the list of the top five safest.

1. Rhode Island – 1.1
2. New Hampshire – 1.7
3. New Jersey – 1.9
4. Delaware – 2.0
5. Massachusetts – 2.1

Rhode Island is the safest state for workers, with only 1.1 fatalities for every 100,000 jobs. The same goes for other states in the top five safest workplaces.

More urban areas also tend to score better with workplace safety. Those areas are more likely to have access to hospitals and emergency services. They also have more developed infrastructure and shorter transportation routes, cutting down on the number of unsafe miles that workers have to use for transportation needs.

Who Gets Injured on the Job

You might find the demographics for who gets fatally injured on a job interesting when reviewing the data.

Men, for example, are much more likely to be injured on the job than women. Only 413 women were involved in fatality injuries on job sites compared to 4,182 men. That means only 8.1% of fatalities involve women.

Older workers are also represented more in the BLS data. Workers aged 55 to 64 accounted for the most fatalities by age breakdown with 1,031 incidents, followed by 35-44-year-old workers with 977 fatalities and 45-54-year-olds with 967 fatality incidents.