S. Korea’s construction worker death rate twice OECD average

1.6 deaths per 10,000 construction workers in 2023, the highest among the OECD’s top 10 economies

Workers at a construction site in an apartment complex in Seoul. /News1

South Korea’s construction workers face a fatality rate twice the average of the top 10 OECD countries, and workplace deaths across all industries also exceed international norms.

A report from the Construction and Economy Research Institute of Korea (CERIK) shows that in 2023, 1.59 construction workers per 10,000 died on the job, the highest among major OECD economies. Canada (1.08), France (0.97), the U.S. (0.96), Italy (0.92), Spain (0.72), Japan (0.68), Australia (0.34), Germany (0.29), and the U.K. (0.24) all recorded lower rates. The 10-country average is 0.78, less than half of South Korea’s figure.

Deaths are not limited to construction. Across all industries, South Korea’s fatality rate was 0.39 per 10,000 workers, about 1.6 times the OECD top-10 average of 0.24, second only to Canada.

The report also notes that construction is riskier than other industries worldwide. Among these 10 countries, construction fatalities average 0.78 per 10,000 workers, which is 3.3 times higher than the overall industrial average.

Choi Soo-young, a research fellow at CERIK, said, “Construction is inherently more dangerous than other sectors. We need industry-level measures to close this gap and national strategies to raise overall workplace safety to global standards.”