When workers around the world go to their workplaces, they expect a minimum level of safety. Yet this basic requirement still seems hard to come by. 

One annual estimate puts the number of workers who die each year from occupational accidents and work-related diseases at 2.78m.

A joint report by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity working on science and engineering, and Gallup, the public opinion polling company, examined some of the main data sources on safety and risk. 

The report’s findings suggest that despite laudable work by some organisations – such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) – a considerable gap of reliable quantitative and comparable measurements to help judge the risks workers worldwide face remains. 

“When researching data at the country level, it quickly became apparent that some countries provide comprehensive data on topics such as occupational risk and safety, while others provide very patchy data, if any”, the reports states.

If countries want to compare themselves to other countries, this can also be problematic. Risk and safety priorities may be different in different economic, social and political contexts, and across different countries and cultures, the authors of the report write.

When countries export their labour practices abroad, health and safety issues can arise, too. A recent report by China Labour Bulletin suggested that when Chinese investments and developments in Cambodia ballooned, the Asian nation may have also introduced its unsafe work practices to Cambodia’s construction sites.

One of the data sources reviewed by Lloyd’s foundation is OECD’s survey data. Last year, as part of its ‘Risks that Matter’ survey, the institution polled 22 countries on various risks.

According to the results of the study, respondents in those countries were most concerned with falling ill and struggling to make ends meet and least bothered about accessing either childcare or education.

E&T established possible relationships between various risks causing concern among people by employing a correlation analysis.  

Patterns were found in the data that suggest that one risk factor may occur side-by-side with another one (a positive relationship, ironically) as well as occurrences when one factor shows up less frequently should another protrude.

The risk of struggling to meet all expenses was found to be positively correlated to the risk of losing a job. In other words, the feeling that there is a considerable risk of having financial problems, despite having a job, occurs more often alongside the worry of losing a job for employees. 

Countries with solid welfare systems – those providing basic economic security for its citizens, such as Denmark and the Netherlands – were to found on the lower right end on the correlation plot. 

Making ends meet is a particular worry for those with low incomes and people in countries that were hit hard by the financial crisis, the findings suggest. 70 per cent of respondents from Greece listed it as a top-three risk, while in Italy the proportion was 56 per cent.

Worries centered around illness and disability would also increase with age. 

Negative correlation is the perception of risk relating to crime and violence and becoming ill or disabled. 

Personal security, or the respondents’ fear of crime and violence, was found to be a serious worry in countries such as Mexico.

Countries where worries about becoming ill or disabled were most severe – such as in Estonia, Poland or Portugal – received a relatively solid score on their country’s safety, according to the UL Safety Index, an index on health, security, sustainability and safety. 

Concerns about illness and disability among respondents would likely grow with age and is most often a top short-term concern for older respondents. 

None of these correlations are of causal nature and countries may still behave against the trend. 

340 million occupational accidents and 160 million victims of work-related diseases occur globally each year, according to ILO figures. 

In the UK, fatal injuries to workers within the construction sector remains a considerable burden. Elsewhere, the statistics are similar. In Russia, around 1,700 people died from work-related injuries last year, with roughly 25 per cent of this total being construction workers, according to Russian news agency Tass. 

When workers around the world go to their workplaces, they expect a minimum level of safety. Yet this basic requirement still seems hard to come by. 

One annual estimate puts the number of workers who die each year from occupational accidents and work-related diseases at 2.78m.

A joint report by Lloyd’s Register Foundation, a UK charity working on science and engineering, and Gallup, the public opinion polling company, examined some of the main data sources on safety and risk. 

The report’s findings suggest that despite laudable work by some organisations – such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) – a considerable gap of reliable quantitative and comparable measurements to help judge the risks workers worldwide face remains. 

“When researching data at the country level, it quickly became apparent that some countries provide comprehensive data on topics such as occupational risk and safety, while others provide very patchy data, if any”, the reports states.

If countries want to compare themselves to other countries, this can also be problematic. Risk and safety priorities may be different in different economic, social and political contexts, and across different countries and cultures, the authors of the report write.

When countries export their labour practices abroad, health and safety issues can arise, too. A recent report by China Labour Bulletin suggested that when Chinese investments and developments in Cambodia ballooned, the Asian nation may have also introduced its unsafe work practices to Cambodia’s construction sites.

One of the data sources reviewed by Lloyd’s foundation is OECD’s survey data. Last year, as part of its ‘Risks that Matter’ survey, the institution polled 22 countries on various risks.

According to the results of the study, respondents in those countries were most concerned with falling ill and struggling to make ends meet and least bothered about accessing either childcare or education.

E&T established possible relationships between various risks causing concern among people by employing a correlation analysis.  

Patterns were found in the data that suggest that one risk factor may occur side-by-side with another one (a positive relationship, ironically) as well as occurrences when one factor shows up less frequently should another protrude.

The risk of struggling to meet all expenses was found to be positively correlated to the risk of losing a job. In other words, the feeling that there is a considerable risk of having financial problems, despite having a job, occurs more often alongside the worry of losing a job for employees. 

Countries with solid welfare systems – those providing basic economic security for its citizens, such as Denmark and the Netherlands – were to found on the lower right end on the correlation plot. 

Making ends meet is a particular worry for those with low incomes and people in countries that were hit hard by the financial crisis, the findings suggest. 70 per cent of respondents from Greece listed it as a top-three risk, while in Italy the proportion was 56 per cent.

Worries centered around illness and disability would also increase with age. 

Negative correlation is the perception of risk relating to crime and violence and becoming ill or disabled. 

Personal security, or the respondents’ fear of crime and violence, was found to be a serious worry in countries such as Mexico.

Countries where worries about becoming ill or disabled were most severe – such as in Estonia, Poland or Portugal – received a relatively solid score on their country’s safety, according to the UL Safety Index, an index on health, security, sustainability and safety. 

Concerns about illness and disability among respondents would likely grow with age and is most often a top short-term concern for older respondents. 

None of these correlations are of causal nature and countries may still behave against the trend. 

340 million occupational accidents and 160 million victims of work-related diseases occur globally each year, according to ILO figures. 

In the UK, fatal injuries to workers within the construction sector remains a considerable burden. Elsewhere, the statistics are similar. In Russia, around 1,700 people died from work-related injuries last year, with roughly 25 per cent of this total being construction workers, according to Russian news agency Tass.