In 2020

Number of accidents at work decreased by 24.4% in the Region compared to the previous year

The Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira (DREM) releases today on its website, a time series on accidents at work, updated with data for 2020, a year in which due to the COVID-19 pandemic there was a reduction of economic activity, particularly in some sectors, due to the restrictions imposed by national and regional authorities to control and mitigate the pandemic.

According to the data provided to the Regional Directorate of Statistics of Madeira (DREM) by the Regional Directorate of Labour and Inspection Action, there were 2,858 accidents at work in the Autonomous Region of Madeira in 2020, the lowest value of the series started in 2000. The number of accidents went down by 24.4%, - 920 than in 2019. Of those accidents, there are 3 fatalities, up by 1 over in the previous year.

The sector of “Construction” concentrated the higher number of accidents at work, representing, in 2020, 24.0% of the total, followed by the sector of “Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles” with 16.5%. The “Accommodation and food service activities” sector recorded the largest decrease, - 357 accidents, meaning a 49,8% drop. It should be noted that accidents in this sector are still accounted for 12.6% of the total (the third sector with the highest number of accidents recorded).

By gender and age groups, in 2020, the majority of the accidents happened with men (75.4%) and with persons aged between 35 and 54 years old (55.3%). The professional groups of “Building and Related Trades Workers (excluding Electricians)” (621 accidents; 21.7%) and “Refuse Workers and Other Elementary Workers” (303 accidents; 10.6%) were the ones with the highest number of accidents.

With regard to the type of accident location, 23.0% of accidents occurred in the "Industrial site" (658 accidents) and 21.1% in " Construction site, construction, opencast quarry, opencast mine" (604 accidents). The cause of most accidents was "Body movement under or with physical stress" (32.7% of total accidents; 935).

The main types of occurrences that caused injury were “Physical and mental stress” (30.9% of the total; 883 accidents) and “Horizontal or vertical impact with or against a stationary object” (22.7%; 649 accidents).

As for the consequences of accidents, “Dislocations, sprains and strains” (42.4%) and “Wounds and superficial injuries” (41.7%) were the most common types of injury, in 2020. More than half of the accidents affected the “Upper or lower extremities of the body” (34.1% and 26.6%, respectively).

Regarding the number of days away from work, 23.8% of the non-deadly accidents at work did not imply absence from work. Amongst the remaining, 7 to 13 days away from work were the consequence of 16.5% of the non-deadly accidents. In 2020, the highest number of days lost was recorded in the “Construction” sector (27,285 days: 28.7% of the total).

For more information, please click on:

• Time series

Back

• Prev
• Next