Five deaths on Swedish worksites sit outside Sweden's fatality rate
Temporary foreign workers are recorded separately because they remain in home-country insurance systems, leaving Sweden without the denominator needed to compare their risk.
A fatal accident on a Swedish worksite is not always counted in Sweden's workplace death rate. For temporary foreign workers, the reporting chain can end in another country's insurance system, leaving Swedish authorities with little evidence about the risks around them.
Listen to this articleNarrated - 9:12
The 2025 statistics count 45 fatal accidents in the Swedish workforce, equal to 0.8 deaths per 100,000 employed people. Five more people died while working in Sweden but were recorded separately as foreign labour.
The report says people working temporarily in Sweden remain in their home countries' insurance systems, so their occupational injuries should be reported there. Sweden therefore has few details about their accidents. Non-fatal cases stay outside the official Swedish statistics, while fatal accidents are listed in a separate count.
That separation has a sound statistical reason. The report gives no population-at-risk figure for temporary foreign workers, so adding their deaths to Sweden's rate would produce a misleading comparison. The accountability gap is about visibility and evidence, not arithmetic.
The government's new strategy says nobody should risk life or health because of work. It says foreign-background workers face greater exposure to demanding work, harmful chemicals and accident risks; temporary permit holders are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.
Sweden can publish a prominent count of every death on its worksites beside the existing workforce rate while it develops a reliable exposure measure for temporary foreign labour. Until that denominator exists, the country cannot compare their fatality rate honestly or test whether its safety policy protects them equally.
DailySweden
DailySweden's desk of editors, reporters, researchers and investigative journalists. We bring readers factual, truthful and objective reporting on the issues that matter to them.
Contact the editorial desk ›
