IMCA Safety Statistics 2025: Injuries Down, Fatalities Up — What That Combination Actually Means

IMCA's Safety Statistics Report 2025, covering over 1.02 billion work hours across 167 contractor members, tells two different stories depending on which number you look at. Injury rates kept improving. Fatalities more than doubled.

The Improving Numbers

The lost time injury frequency rate dropped from 0.30 to 0.27, and the total recordable injury rate fell from 1.10 to 0.98. By the standard measures most safety dashboards track, 2025 looks like a good year.

The Number That Matters More

Fatalities rose from three to seven, with four occurring offshore. The fatal accident rate climbed from 0.30 to 0.69. Reported fatal incidents included an electrocution, a fall from height, and a mooring incident involving a parted rope — high-consequence, low-frequency events that don't move the same way lost-time injury statistics do.

A Falling Observation Rate, Too

The Safety Observation Frequency Rate fell around 20%, from 482.1 to 387.1 observations per 200,000 hours worked — fewer near-misses and hazards being logged even as serious outcomes rose. IMCA's own message is blunt: don't let improving lagging indicators distract from spotting high-risk hazards before they cause a disaster. A good injury rate and a rising fatality rate can be true at the same time, and the industry needs to watch for the second even when the first looks reassuring.

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