Among the occupational groups compared in U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data, construction and extraction had the largest share of fatal work injuries involving extreme heat from 2011 through 2020: 32.3%. Farming, fishing and forestry accounted for 8.8%. The available figures do not establish a military ranking, and they do not show that farmworkers faced a higher heat-death rate than construction workers.
Which occupations had the most heat-related deaths?
BLS reported that construction and extraction occupations accounted for 32.3% of fatal work injuries involving extreme heat between 2011 and 2020. Farming, fishing and forestry occupations accounted for 8.8% over the same period. These are shares of heat-related fatal injuries, not occupation-specific fatality rates: they show each group’s portion of the recorded deaths, not an individual worker’s likelihood of dying.
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The figures come from a BLS analysis published in 2023 and describe a ten-year period, not the latest year alone. The annual BLS tables report an overall heat-death count, but do not by themselves identify which occupation had the most deaths in 2023. BLS: Occupational heat-related fatalities in the United States, 2011–2020.
How many workers die from heat at work each year?
BLS counted 55 fatal workplace injuries attributed to environmental heat in 2023, compared with 43 in 2022. These are annual national counts, not rates adjusted for the number of workers or hours worked, and they do not identify the occupation with the most deaths in each year.
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BLS’s Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) identifies, verifies and describes fatal work injuries using multiple sources. Its scope is not a count of every death associated with heat illness: illness-related deaths are excluded unless an injury event precipitated the illness. BLS 2023 fatal occupational injuries release; BLS 2022 fatal occupational injuries release; BLS CFOI data and methodology.
Are farmworkers or construction workers more likely to die from heat?
The cited figures do not answer that risk question directly. The 32.3% and 8.8% figures are shares of heat-related fatal injuries across occupational groups. A risk comparison would require heat-specific fatality rates using comparable worker denominators for each group.
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A frequently cited statistic can be misleading here: farming, fishing and forestry had 23.5 fatal work injuries per 100,000 full-time-equivalent (FTE) workers in 2022, the highest all-cause rate among occupational groups that year. It includes fatal injuries from all causes, not heat deaths specifically, so it cannot establish that farmworkers were more likely than construction workers to die of heat. BLS 2022 fatal occupational injuries release.
Likewise, BLS reported 1,032 fatal work injuries among construction and extraction occupations and 151 among agricultural workers in 2024. Those are all-cause counts, not heat-specific figures, and counts alone do not compare risk because the groups differ in size. BLS 2024 fatal occupational injuries release.
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Can the data show whether military personnel have the most heat deaths?
No. The cited BLS fatality-rate data exclude resident military, so they cannot support a military-versus-civilian ranking. The available figures here also do not provide a comparable military heat-fatality series. That absence is a limit of this comparison, not evidence that military personnel have no heat-related deaths.
For an occupational comparison to be meaningful, the groups must use the same time period, heat-specific definition and denominator, with exclusions stated. Combining military figures with civilian counts or rates that cover different populations would risk a false ranking.
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