Is government OHS spending directly tied to workplace fatality outcomes?
I was curious about whether higher government spend on occupational health and safety correlates with lower workplace fatality rates. So I lined up the data to 2023 where possible, and compared per-worker spend against fatality outcomes.
Some quick observations:
More OHS spend per worker often sits next to lower fatality rates, but not always.
Germany and the UK look strong on both spend and outcomes.
Japan has a low fatality rate despite very low direct spend, which suggests other levers at play.
Takeaway: spending helps, but money alone isn’t the silver bullet.
Is it a suprise that Japan wins again?
* Australia 2023: spend \~\$23 per worker, fatality rate \~1.4 per 100k
* Canada 2023: spend \~\$8–9 per worker, fatality rate \~1.6 per 100k
* France 2023: spend \~\$3 per worker, fatality rate \~2.5 per 100k
* Japan 2023: spend < \$1 per worker, fatality rate \~1.4 per 100k
* United States 2023: spend \~\$5 per worker, fatality rate \~3.0 per 100k
* United Kingdom 2023: spend \~\$7 per worker, fatality rate \~0.4 per 100k
* Germany 2023: spend \~\$33 per worker, fatality rate \~0.8 per 100k
* New Zealand 2023: spend \~\$18 per worker, fatality rate \~2.5 per 100k
* South Korea 2023: spend \~\$9 per worker, fatality rate \~5.0 per 100k
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