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1CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training, 8484 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring,
MD 20910, USA
2
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 800 West Main Street, Whitewater, WI 53190, USA

Falls from heights remain the most common cause of workplace fatalities amongresidential construction workers in the United States. This paper examines patterns
and trends of fall fatalities in U.S. residential construction between 2003 and 2010
by analyzing two large national datasets. The results show that almost half offatalities in residential construction were from falls during this study period. In theresidential roofing industry, 80% of fatalities were from falls. In addition, about
one-third of fatal falls in residential construction were among self-employedworkers. Workers who were older than 55 years, were Hispanic foreign-born, oremployed in small establishments (1-10 employees) also had higher proportions offatal falls in residential construction compared to those in nonresidentialconstruction. The findings suggest that fall safety of the residential constructionindustry lag behind commercial construction and industrial settings. Fall
preventions in residential construction should be enhanced to better protect
construction workers in this sector.

Introduction
Residential construction is one of the important subsectors in the U.S. construction industry,
producing nearly half of the value of private construction in the country (U.S. Census Bureau,2013). Falls from heights remain the leading cause of work-related injuries and fatalities among
construction workers, particularly for those employed in residential construction, despite theoverall declining trend in injury rates in the United States (CPWR, 2013; Dong et al., 2013, 2012,2009; Kaskutas et al., 2009). Although there are some studies on safety in residential construction,
few studies focus on fatal fall injuries among the U.S. residential construction workers at thenational level. Due to the nature of construction work and significant variations between residentialand commercial construction, studies covering fall hazards in commercial construction may not
yield results with applicable strategies for reducing fatalities among residential workers. It is
important to know the circumstances surrounding the residential construction fatal fall incidents toimprove safety training and practices. As a result, this study examines the patterns and trends offall fatalities in U.S. residential construction in order to provide insight for fall mitigation strategies
among construction workers.
MethodWork-related death numbers were estimated from the 2003-2010 research files of the Census of
Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), a data collection by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

- 61 -Data on work-related fatalities are compiled from death certificates, workers’ compensation
reports, reports from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), medical
examiner reports, newspaper articles, and other sources. Both the death and work-relatedness of thefatality must be corroborated by at least two data sources, or one data source and a follow-up
questionnaire. The CFOI research files were obtained through a data use agreement with the BLS.
Data covering employment in construction subsectors are from the Current Employment Statistics(CES), a large monthly establishment survey conducted by the BLS.
Fatalities in the construction industry were identified according to the North American
Industry Classification System (NAICS). Residential construction includes both “residentialbuilding of construction” (NAICS 236xxx) and “residential specialty trade” (NAICS 238xx1; e.g.,“residential building finishing contractors,” NAICS 238301). Nonresidential construction is used
as a comparison group, including both “nonresidential building of construction” (NAICS 2362xx)
and “nonresidential specialty trade” (NAICS 238xx2; e.g., “nonresidential building finishingcontractors,” NAICS 238302). Fatal falls includes all types of falls (e.g., falls to a lower level, falls
on the same level, and unspecified falls; BLS, 2007). Establishment size represents the number ofwage-and-salary workers employed at the establishment of the decedent. Fatality rate is defined bydeaths per 100,000 workers. Only fatalities among private wage-and-salary workers are included in
the rate calculations to match the employment data in the CES.
Distributions of fatal falls in residential construction and nonresidential construction bymajor demographic and employment categories were tabulated and compared with overall fatalities
in construction. Chi-square tests were used to measure whether characteristics of falls in residentialconstruction differed significantly from nonresidential fall fatalities at the Į= .05 level; t-tests wereapplied to test whether the rate of fall fatalities in residential construction was significantlydifferent from the rate in nonresidential construction. All statistical analyses were performed withSAS version 9.2 (SAS Institute, 2008).
Results
From 2003 to 2005, the number of residential fall fatalities increased by 31%, from 102 to 134,
then dropped 40% by 2009 (Figure 1). There was a small increase in the number of fall fatalities
from 2009 to 2010, from 81 to 87. Comparing residential building and residential specialty trade,the proportion of fatal falls occurring in the residential building subsector showed a slightincreasing trend from 2003 to 2010.
Residential building
Residential specialty trade

160

Number of deaths

132
120

134

130
110

102

93

80
40500

2003

6471

2004

2005

6255

40

81

44

8751

2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
YearSource: 2003-2010 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries.
This research was conducted with restricted access to Bureau of Labor Statistics(BLS) data. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the BLS.

Figure 1. Number of fatal fall injuries in residential construction, 2003-2010- 62 -Table 1 compares characteristics of fall fatalities in residential to those in nonresidentialconstruction. More than one quarter (26.5%) of residential fatalities occurred among workers age 55
years and older, compared to just 18.7% of nonresidential fatalities. A larger proportion of Hispanic
residential fall decedents were foreign-born when compared to their nonresidential counterparts(27.2% vs. 23.0%, p < .001). In addition, nearly one in three residential fatalities occurred among theself-employed, compared to just one in ten nonresidential fatalities. Moreover, decedents in residential
construction were more likely to work in small establishments than those in nonresidentialconstruction (p < .001). More than 61% of residential fall fatalities occurred among establishmentswith 10 or fewer employees, compared to 43% of nonresidential fatalities. Region also varied by typeof construction (p < .001). The South accounted for 46.3% of residential and 54.8% of nonresidential
fall fatalities. While the West had similar percentages of fall fatalities, residential construction
experienced a higher proportion of fatalities in the Northeast and Midwest.
Table 1. Characteristics of fall fatalities, residential vs. nonresidential construction, 2003-2010

Age (in years)
16-19
20-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65 and overGender
Male
RaceWhiteBlack
Other
Hispanic origin
Hispanic
Foreign-born
Self-employed
Establishment size
1-10 employees
11-19 employees
20-49 employees
50-99 employees
100+ employees
Not reported

Residential(n = 869)

Nonresidential(n = 806)

All fatalities(n = 2,986)

1.6%
8.1%
16.1%
21.9%
25.9%
17.7%
8.8%

2.6%
7.4%
22.5%
23.7%
25.1%
13.7%
5.0%

2.3%
7.1%
18.3%
22.7%
26.5%
16.2%
6.7%

99.7%

99.1%

99.5%

84.7%
4.5%
10.4%

84.4%
5.6%
9.9%

84.1%
5.5%
9.8%

32.6%
27.2%
30.8%

32.5%
23.0%
10.9%

30.1%
23.6%
19.8%

61.6%
5.3%
5.3%
2.7%
1.6%
23.6%

42.9%
7.4%
13.9%
8.1%
12.3%
15.4%

47.4%
6.3%
8.8%
4.7%
6.9%
26.0%

p-valuea< .001

.165
.446

.868
.001
.001
.001

.001
Region
South
46.3%
54.8%
45.7%
West
18.3%
18.7%
18.0%
Northeast
19.8%
12.8%
18.1%
Midwest
15.7%
13.7%
18.1%
Source: 2003-2010 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries
This research was conducted with restricted access to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. The views
expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the BLS.
a.
p-values reflect chi-square tests for the association between sector (residential and nonresidential) and othercharacteristic variables.

When self-employed workers were excluded, average fall fatality rates for 2003-2010 wereslightly higher for residential than for nonresidential building construction (4.7 vs. 4.2 fatalities per- 63 -100,000 workers); however, the death rate for residential building construction was higher than theaverage of 4.2 for all construction (Table 2). Over the time period, there was a greater yearly variation
among residential building (3.0 to 6.7) compared to nonresidential building (3.3 to 5.3).
Table 2. Number and rate of fatal fall injuries in construction, residential vs. nonresidentialbuilding construction, 2003-2010 (Private wage-and-salary workers)
Year

Residential Building
NAICS 2361xx

Nonresidential Building
NAICS 2632xx

All construction

NumberRate a, b

NumberRate a, b

NumberRate b

2003

29

3.6

37

5.3

292

4.3

2004

42

5.1

26

3.9

346

5.0

2005

59

6.7

37

5.3

323

4.4

2006

52

5.4

25

3.3

345

4.5

2007

34

3.7

39

4.9

351

4.6

2008

24

3.0

35

4.3

2693.8

2009

27

4.4

23

3.3

205

3.4

p-value c.195

2010
30
5.5
21
3.3
195
3.5
Average
37
4.7
30
4.2
291
4.2
Source: 2003-2010 Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries and Current Employment Statistics
This research was conducted with restricted access to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. The views
expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the BLS.
aCases without detailed industrial classification information were excluded from calculations.
bRate = Number of deaths per 100,000 workers.
cp-value reflects a t-test for the rates between residential and nonresidential building construction.

Conclusions and Discussion
This paper examined the patterns and trends of fatal falls in the U.S. residential construction from2003 to 2010. The results show that almost half of fatalities in residential construction were from falls
during the study period. In the residential roofing industry, 80% of fatalities were from falls. Among
those fall decedents in residential construction, one in three was self-employed. In addition, workers
who were older than 55 years, were Hispanic foreign-born, or worked for small establishments (1-10employees) had higher proportions of fatal falls in residential construction compared to those innonresidential construction. The lack of specific fall prevention methods and regulations may
contribute to the higher rates of fall deaths in residential construction (Kaskutas et al., 2013, 2010; Saet al., 2009; Choi, 2006; Lipscomb et al., 2008).
To reduce and eliminate fall injuries, it is imperative to enforce OSHA regulations (OSHA,2013a, 2013b, 2010). Residential construction companies should have a written fall protection
program that specifies what type of fall protection is available, provide adequate training for workers,
and enforce fall protection programs. Additional methods that reduce or eliminate fall exposures
should also be considered, such as fabrication and preparation of elevated components on the groundlevel and then later positioned mechanically. Contractors must identify fall protection devices andmethods to protect the workers while constructing residential structures. While this may be difficult
for small- or medium-sized contractors, increased availability of equipment rental may be an efficient
way to improve the widespread use of effective fall protection technologies for small construction
companies. Fall protection device manufacturers and the building components industry shouldcollaborate to test the Personal Fall Arrest Systems (PFAS); this will help generate definitive evidence
about the safety of PFAS in various applications. Even though resources such as fall prevention
programs and protective equipment are necessary, they are less effective without adequate training.
Therefore, effective safety training programs should be provided to all construction workers who areexposed to potential fall hazards in performing their job.

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