Work-Related Ill Health Statistics UK 2026

Work-Related Ill Health Statistics UK

Work-related illness includes conditions people believe were caused or made worse by their work. HSE’s main workforce estimates come from the Labour Force Survey and cover Great Britain.

Current illness, new cases, absence, deaths from past exposures and economic costs have different definitions and reporting periods. This guide keeps those measures separate.

Reviewed 15 October 2026. HSE workforce estimates cover Great Britain in 2024/25; cost estimates use the 2023/24 reference year. Population surveys and other periods are labelled separately.

Key Facts & Figures (Overview)

1.9 million workers reported new or long-standing work-related ill health in Great Britain, 2024/25.
5,360 per 100,000 workers was the estimated prevalence rate.
730,000 workers reported a new work-related ill-health case in 2024/25.
35.7 million days were lost to work-related ill health in 2024/25.
964,000 workers reported stress, depression or anxiety: 52% of work-related ill-health cases.
511,000 workers reported MSDs: 27% of cases.
21% of cases were other types of illness.
£16.4 billion is HSE’s estimated cost of new work-related ill health in the 2023/24 reference year, within the £22.9 billion injury-and-illness total.
11,000 deaths a year are estimated to result from occupational lung disease linked to past exposures; this is a separate measure from current workforce illness.

How Many Workers Are Affected?

HSE estimates 1.9 million workers with work-related illness in 2024/25, including 730,000 new cases. The rate was 5,360 per 100,000 workers.

New and long-standing cases are both included in prevalence.
“Work-related” reflects respondents’ assessment that work caused or worsened the condition.
HSE describes recent overall rates as broadly similar, but above the 2018/19 pre-pandemic level.
The annual estimates do not justify describing 2024/25 as an unprecedented record or treating every year-to-year change as statistically significant.

The Three Main Categories of Work-Related Ill Health

HSE groups the Great Britain 2024/25 workforce estimates into the following broad categories. Shares are rounded.

Category	Share of cases	Workers affected
Stress, depression and anxiety	52%	964,000
Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)	27%	511,000
Other ill health	21%	Included in overall total

The “other” group covers several different conditions. The workforce survey is not a complete count of long-latency disease in former workers.

Work-Related Stress, Depression and Anxiety

Stress, depression and anxiety form the largest category in HSE’s workforce illness estimates.

Scale and trend

An estimated 964,000 workers were affected in 2024/25.
An estimated 22.1 million working days were lost, averaging 22.9 days per case.
HSE describes a longer-term upward trend; individual estimates still carry survey uncertainty.

Who is most affected

Public administration and defence, education, and human health and social work had significantly higher rates than the all-industry average over 2022/23–2024/25.

Factors to assess

HSE’s Management Standards cover demands, control, support, relationships, role and change. They provide a framework for discussing and addressing work-related stress risks.

Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs)

In 2024/25, work-related MSDs affected an estimated 511,000 workers in Great Britain and caused 7.1 million days lost.

Back conditions represented 43% of cases; upper-limb or neck conditions 41%; lower-limb conditions 15%.
There were an estimated 173,000 new MSD cases.
HSE describes recent overall MSD rates as similar to 2018/19.
The figures do not establish that hybrid working caused changes in upper-limb symptoms or that a small annual movement proves prevention failed.

Occupational Respiratory Disease

HSE estimates around 11,000 annual lung-disease deaths linked to past occupational exposures. Many diseases take years to develop, so these deaths do not measure harm arising only from current-year work.

The estimate includes COPD, lung cancer, mesothelioma and other lung diseases. Rounded component shares should not be treated as exact counts.
The 2022/23–2024/25 Labour Force Survey average was 49,000 workers with new or long-standing work-related breathing or lung problems, including 22,000 new cases a year. These are three-year averages.
The latest mesothelioma report records 2,146 deaths in Great Britain in 2024. Mesothelioma deaths are not an additional total to add to the occupational lung-disease estimate.
Dusts, fumes and other hazardous substances require exposure controls appropriate to the work.

Working Days Lost to Work-Related Ill Health

The Labour Force Survey estimates the following absence totals for Great Britain in 2024/25:

35.7 million days from work-related ill health.
22.1 million days from stress, depression or anxiety.
7.1 million days from MSDs.
Approximately 6.5 million days from other illness, calculated as the remainder of the rounded totals.
4.4 million days from non-fatal injuries, bringing the combined total to 40.1 million.

These are self-reported absence estimates, not certified absence records. They do not measure every impact of working while unwell.

The Cost of Work-Related Ill Health

HSE estimates new work-related ill health cost £16.4 billion in the 2023/24 reference year: around 72% of the £22.9 billion combined injury-and-illness total for Great Britain.

The model includes financial costs and a valuation of harm to health.
It uses an annual average of cases over 2022/23–2024/25.
Pre-existing illness and long-latency diseases such as occupational cancer are excluded.
A wider estimate of all poor mental health is not directly comparable with this work-related model.

Which Industries Are Most Affected?

Industry comparisons below use HSE’s 2022/23–2024/25 averages and concern work-related illness associated with a current or most recent job.

Stress, depression and anxiety — above-average rates

Public administration and defence.
Education.
Human health and social work.

Musculoskeletal disorders — above-average rates

Construction.
Transportation and storage.
Administrative and support service activities.

Respiratory disease — assess relevant exposures

Dusts and fumes in construction and manufacturing.
Flour and other respiratory sensitisers in food production.
Relevant exposures in agriculture, vehicle repair and other work.

Overall illness — use comparable data

An industry’s case count depends on workforce size as well as risk. Rates, confidence intervals and the exact illness category are needed for a meaningful comparison.

Long-Term Trends: Is It Getting Worse?

HSE reports that recent overall work-related ill-health rates are higher than the 2018/19 level, while rates in recent years are broadly similar.

Stress, depression and anxiety show a longer-term upward trend.
Recent MSD rates are similar to 2018/19.
Deaths from long-latency disease reflect exposure patterns from years or decades earlier.
Changes in survey counts should not be presented as proof of a particular cause or as a forecast.

Who Bears the Cost?

The following allocation is for the combined £22.9 billion cost of workplace injuries and new ill-health cases in Great Britain in 2023/24, not ill health alone:

Individuals: £13.4 billion.
Employers: £4.3 billion.
Government: £5.2 billion.

The individual share includes a valuation of pain and lost quality of life. These figures are not simply payments made by each group.

Employer Legal Duties

Employers in Great Britain must assess and manage relevant risks to physical and mental health. Northern Ireland has its own corresponding legislation.

General duties arise under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
Specific duties may apply to manual handling, hazardous substances, noise, vibration and display screen work.
Assess the actual work and implement suitable controls; a course certificate alone does not establish compliance.

What Works: Reducing Work-Related Ill Health

Stress, Depression and Anxiety

Consult workers about demands, support and work organisation.
Act on the findings of a suitable stress risk assessment.
Support affected staff alongside addressing workplace causes.

Musculoskeletal Disorders

Avoid or reduce hazardous handling and repetitive work.
Provide suitable aids, workstations, instruction and recovery time.
Review reported discomfort and changes in work.

Respiratory and Other Occupational Diseases

Assess hazardous substances and prevent or adequately control exposure.
Use engineering and organisational controls before relying solely on personal protection.
Arrange health surveillance where the risk and legal criteria require it.

Across All Categories

Involve workers and supervisors in decisions.
Seek occupational health or other competent advice where needed.
Monitor whether controls remain effective; do not assume a universal financial return.

Written by Workplace Safety Experts

This guide was produced by the team at Manual Handling Training, a UK provider of RoSPA-approved and CPD-accredited online health and safety training. While manual handling and MSDs are our core specialism, work-related ill health in its broader sense — stress, respiratory disease, hearing loss, and occupational cancer — affects the same workers and employers we serve every day. We publish data resources like this one because accurate, accessible information is foundational to better workplace health outcomes across the UK.

Sources & references

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Mark McShane

Health & Safety Training Specialist, Online CPD Academy

Mark writes about workplace health & safety, manual handling and accredited online training for Manual Handling Training, part of Online CPD Academy.