Working days lost in Great Britain
Working days lost, 2019/20
38.8 million Estimated working days lost due to work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries in 2019/20 (LFS)
| Workplace injuries and ill health | Estimated working days lost |
|---|---|
| Work-related ill health | 32.5 |
| Non-fatal workplace injuries | 6.3 |
Trend statements
- Stress, depression or anxiety and musculoskeletal disorders accounted for the majority of days lost due to work-related ill health, 17.9 million and 8.9 million respectively.
- On average, each person suffering took around 17.6 days off work. This varies as follows:
- 9.1 days for Injuries
- 20.0 days for Ill health cases
- 21.6 days for Stress, depression or anxiety
- 18.4 days for Musculoskeletal disorders
Working days lost per worker due to work-related ill health and workplace injuries
Working days lost per worker due to self-reported work-related illness or injury has been broadly flat in recent years, although 2019/20 is above recent rates
| Year | Days lost per worker | Days lost Lower Bound | Days lost Upper Bound |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000/01 | 1.73 | 1.61 | 1.85 |
| 2002/03 | 0 | 1.56 | 1.80 |
| 2003/04 | 1.62 | 1.50 | 1.74 |
| 2004/05 | 1.49 | 1.38 | 1.61 |
| 2005/06 | 1.28 | 1.18 | 1.39 |
| 2006/07 | 1.49 | 1.37 | 1.62 |
| 2007/08 | 1.39 | 1.28 | 1.51 |
| 2008/09 | 1.22 | 1.11 | 1.33 |
| 2009/10 | 1.19 | 1.08 | 1.31 |
| 2010/11 | 1.10 | 0.98 | 1.22 |
| 2011/12 | 1.14 | 1.02 | 1.25 |
| 2012/13 | 0 | 1.02 | 1.26 |
| 2013/14 | 1.14 | 1.03 | 1.26 |
| 2014/15 | 1.09 | 0.98 | 1.20 |
| 2015/16 | 1.19 | 1.07 | 1.31 |
| 2016/17 | 1.21 | 1.08 | 1.33 |
| 2017/18 | 1.17 | 1.04 | 1.30 |
| 2018/19 | 1.06 | 0.94 | 1.18 |
| 2019/20 | 1.45 | 1.27 | 1.63 |
Trend statements
Working days lost per worker due to self-reported work-related illness or injury has been broadly flat in recent years, although 2019/20 is above recent rates
Notes
- 2000-02 refers to 2000/01 injury data and 2001/02 illness data combined
- Disruption to the economy towards the end of 2019/20 due to the emergence of COVID-19 as a national health issue had the potential to have impacted on workplace injury and work-related ill health data for 2019/20. A paper setting out the issues in more detail along with results of analysis of the headline data from the Labour Force Survey and RIDDOR found that COVID-19 does not appear to be the main driver of changes seen in the latest year's data.
More information on working days lost
- Data source: Labour Force Survey (LFS) (estimates of working days lost due to self–reported work-related ill health and workplace injuries)
- The detailed data included in the charts can be found in the following tables:
- LFSILLTYP - working days lost due to self-reported work-related ill health
- LFSINJSUM - working days lost due to self-reported workplace injuries
- LFSWDL - working days lost due to self-reported work-related ill health and workplace injuries
- Further working days lost tables