In 1970, the United States had 14,000 on-the-job fatalities. Because of that, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created. The agency helped reduce fatalities — there were just 5,250 on-the-job deaths in 2018 — and keeps detailed statistics about accidents, fatal or otherwise, that happen when people are at work.
If your occupation isn’t on this list, you have a pretty good chance of surviving the workday. OSHA says 3.5 out of every 100,000 people die on the job each year. Those are about the same odds you have of being murdered by a firearm or, if you're a woman, of dying from cervical cancer.
If you work in any of the jobs on this list, however, you're taking a risk. The death rates in these jobs are at least twice as high (and as much as 20 times higher) than the average death rate for all jobs. And that's not even counting their high rate of nonfatal workplace injuries.
These jobs are proof that, as effective as OSHA has been in reducing workplace fatalities, some jobs are just downright dangerous.
Note: All data is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Rankings are based on the number of deaths in 2018 per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers, or fatal injury rate.