How Dangerous Is Plumbing? Injury and Fatality Data for the Trade

By The Plumbing Brief Editorial Team · October 4, 2026 · Last reviewed: 2026-10-04

A plumber in knee pads and safety glasses working on pipes in a cramped dusty crawl space lit by a work light

The short answer

Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors recorded 3.0 injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in 2024, against 2.2 for construction overall and 2.3 for all private industry, the fourth-highest of 37 construction industries BLS reports. 348 plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters died on the job from 2011 to 2022, according to BLS fatality data.

The short answer, expanded

Two BLS programs answer this question. The Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses (SOII) counts nonfatal cases recorded by employers, by industry. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) counts every work death, by occupation. Neither covers plumbing alone: SOII reports plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors together, and CFOI reports plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters together. Read side by side they give a consistent picture: plumbing is not among the most lethal construction trades, but it is among the most injurious.

Industry (2024)	Total recordable cases	Days away, restricted or transferred	Days away from work
Plumbing, heating and AC contractors	3.0	1.7	1.1
All construction	2.2	1.3	0.9
All private industry	2.3	1.4	0.8
Electrical contractors	1.8	1.1	0.7
Roofing contractors	2.4	1.7	1.1
Drywall and insulation	2.9	2.0	1.2
Water and sewer line construction	1.9	1.1	0.6

Source: BLS SOII, 2024, private industry, rates per 100 full-time equivalent workers. The relative standard error of the 238220 total rate is 5.2 percent.

The rate fell from 4.1 in 2014 to 3.0 in 2024 but stays above the construction average every year.

Sums of published annual cells. BLS suppresses small cells, so each bar is a lower bound.

The evidence

Total recordable case rate, NAICS 238220, 2024: 3.0 per 100 FTE workers. Source: BLS SOII.
All construction, 2024: 2.2. All private industry: 2.3. Source: BLS SOII.
Rank of 238220 among the 37 construction industries with a published 2024 rate: 4, behind framing (4.6), siding (3.2) and other building finishing (3.1). Source: BLS SOII.
Electrical contractors, 2024: 1.8. Roofing contractors: 2.4. Source: BLS SOII.
238220 rate in 2014: 4.1. Source: BLS SOII.
Cases involving days away from work, 238220, 2024: 1.1 per 100 FTE, against 0.9 for construction. Source: BLS SOII.
Fatal work injuries to plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, 2011 to 2022: 348; fewest in a year 18 (2011), most 43 (2015). Source: BLS CFOI.
Of those deaths, published cells for contact with objects and equipment sum to 76, transportation incidents 63, exposure to harmful substances or environments 71, falls 67. Source: BLS CFOI.
Published cells for electrocution (exposure to electricity) sum to 20; for self-employed plumbers 65. Source: BLS CFOI.
Fatal injury rate, construction and extraction occupations, 2024: 12.6 per 100,000 FTE; all workers 3.3; electricians 5.3; roofers 48.7. BLS does not publish an hours-based rate for plumbers. Source: BLS CFOI hours-based rates 2024.

Plumber twisted in a tight crawlspace gripping a wrench on a pipe joint. — Awkward postures under floors and in tight spaces strain the back and knees.

What the numbers imply

Plumbing/HVAC contractors injure at 1.36 times the construction rate

Formula. 238220 total recordable rate divided by the all-construction rate, 2024.

Calculation. 3.0 / 2.2 = 1.36.

Finding. The trade’s injury rate is about a third higher than construction’s, and has been above it in every year since 2014. The pattern points to the kind of injury the work produces: lifting water heaters and fixtures, working in crawl spaces, cuts and strains, rather than the falls that dominate roofing.

Limitations. SOII depends on employer recordkeeping and is known to undercount, and NAICS 238220 includes HVAC and office staff. The rate describes firms, not plumbers specifically.

Plumbing kills less often than most construction trades

Formula. CFOI fatality counts for the occupation against the published hours-based rates for comparable trades.

Calculation. An average of 29 deaths a year among roughly 466,000 employed plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (OEWS May 2025, payroll only). Electricians have a published rate of 5.3 and roofers 48.7 per 100,000 FTE.

Finding. Without a published rate the comparison is indicative only, but the count is low relative to the size of the occupation. Plumbing’s risk profile is high-frequency injury with comparatively low fatality, the reverse of roofing.

Limitations. Any rate calculated from the OEWS headcount would be unreliable: OEWS excludes the self-employed, who account for a share of deaths, and is not an hours measure. We do not publish one.

Vehicles are as large a killer as anything on site

Formula. Published CFOI cells by event, summed over the period.

Calculation. Contact with objects and equipment 76; transportation 63; harmful substances or environments 71; falls 67.

Finding. For a trade that drives between service calls all day, the road is one of the main workplace hazards. Exposure deaths, including electrocution and toxic atmospheres in confined spaces, are a close third.

Limitations. BLS suppresses small cells, so many years show no value for a category. The sums are lower bounds and should not be divided by the total.

Figures worth quoting

Plumbing and HVAC contractors: 3.0 injuries per 100 workers in 2024, against 2.2 for construction.
Rank 4 of 37 construction industries for injury rates.
348 plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters died at work from 2011 to 2022.
Roofers die at work at nine times the rate of electricians; BLS does not publish a plumber rate.

Download the data

SOII rates by case type with relative standard errors and the CFOI occupation fatality counts. Published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Attribution: The Plumbing Brief.

Injury rates for plumbing/HVAC contractors and comparators 2014 to 2024, and plumber deaths 2011 to 2022 (CSV)

How this report was built

Methodology

Sources. BLS Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program: SOII industry data (is database, private industry, all US, area code 100) for NAICS 238220 and comparators, 2014 to 2024; CFOI time series (fw database) for occupation 47-2152, all ownerships, national, 2011 to 2022; CFOI published tables for 2024 hours-based rates. Retrieved from the BLS LABSTAT bulk files and bls.gov on 4 October 2026.

Rates. SOII rates are as published, per 100 full-time equivalent workers. The rank was computed across every construction industry with a published 2024 total recordable rate in the SOII database.

Event sums. Sums of the published annual CFOI cells for each event group. Suppressed cells are treated as missing, not zero.

Retrieval date. 4 October 2026.

Data limitations

SOII is an industry measure and CFOI an occupation measure. They describe overlapping but different groups and should not be combined into a single rate.
NAICS 238220 combines plumbing with HVAC. No federal injury series isolates plumbing contractors.
SOII excludes the self-employed and relies on employer injury logs; academic studies have found it undercounts.
The CFOI time series database runs to 2022 for this occupation. Later detail is published only in summary tables that do not list plumbers separately.
Annual death counts are small and swing widely, from 18 to 43, so single-year changes should not be read as trends.

Source quality ranking

Tier 1. US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities program (SOII and CFOI), CFOI published tables; Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for the occupation headcount.

Tier 2. None used. Tier 3. None used.

Excluded. OSHA inspection and citation data, which name individual employers and reflect enforcement priorities rather than incidence.

Briefing note

Plumbing, heating and air-conditioning contractors reported 3.0 recordable injuries and illnesses per 100 full-time workers in 2024, against 2.2 for construction as a whole and 2.3 for all private industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The rate is the fourth highest of 37 construction industries with published data. Fatal injuries are a different story: 348 plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters died at work from 2011 to 2022, an average of about 29 a year, in an occupation of roughly 466,000 payroll workers. Contact with objects and equipment, roadway and other transportation incidents, and exposure to harmful substances were the leading recorded causes.

Plumbing van parked at dawn with doors open and ladder and pipe loaded inside. — Many plumbing days start and end with time spent on the road.

How reporters could frame this

Plumbing injures more workers than most construction trades
The plumber’s deadliest hazard may be the drive to the job
About 30 plumbers die at work each year
Plumbing vs roofing: high injury, low fatality
Why there is no official death rate for plumbers

How to cite this report

The Plumbing Brief, “How Dangerous Is Plumbing? Injury and Fatality Data for the Trade”, https://theplumbingbrief.com/how-dangerous-is-plumbing/, accessed [date].

Last reviewed: 2026-10-04.