Is Government Ohs Spending Directly Tied to Workplace Fatality Outcomes?

I was curious about whether higher government spend on occupational health and safety correlates with lower workplace fatality rates. So I lined up the data to 2023 where possible, and compared per-worker spend against fatality outcomes.

Some quick observations:

More OHS spend per worker often sits next to lower fatality rates, but not always.

Germany and the UK look strong on both spend and outcomes.

Japan has a low fatality rate despite very low direct spend, which suggests other levers at play.

Takeaway: spending helps, but money alone isn’t the silver bullet.

Is it a suprise that Japan wins again?

* Australia 2023: spend \~\$23 per worker, fatality rate \~1.4 per 100k

* Canada 2023: spend \~\$8–9 per worker, fatality rate \~1.6 per 100k

* France 2023: spend \~\$3 per worker, fatality rate \~2.5 per 100k

* Japan 2023: spend < \$1 per worker, fatality rate \~1.4 per 100k

* United States 2023: spend \~\$5 per worker, fatality rate \~3.0 per 100k

* United Kingdom 2023: spend \~\$7 per worker, fatality rate \~0.4 per 100k

* Germany 2023: spend \~\$33 per worker, fatality rate \~0.8 per 100k

* New Zealand 2023: spend \~\$18 per worker, fatality rate \~2.5 per 100k

* South Korea 2023: spend \~\$9 per worker, fatality rate \~5.0 per 100k