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A comprehensive look at workplace violence in the United States — covering fatal and nonfatal incidents, high-risk industries, demographic patterns, healthcare violence, and how professional security can reduce risk.
Workplace violence is one of the most serious — and often underappreciated — safety challenges facing American businesses. From fatal shootings in retail stores to assaults on healthcare workers to threats against office employees, workplace violence affects every industry and every type of facility.
For property managers, HR directors, and business owners, understanding the scope of this problem is the first step toward building an effective prevention strategy. The statistics below, drawn from OSHA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the American Hospital Association, and other authoritative sources, provide a data-driven foundation for that effort.
Workplace fatalities due to violence remain a persistent problem — and in the most recent data, they moved in the opposite direction from overall workplace safety.
| Metric | 2024 | 2023 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total fatal work injuries | 5,070 | 5,283 | ↓ 4.0% |
| Fatal injury rate (per 100,000 FTE) | 3.3 | 3.5 | ↓ |
| Fatalities from violent acts | 733 | 740 | ↓ 0.9% |
| Workplace homicides | 470 | 458 | ↑ 2.6% |
Source: BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, 2024
The single most important line in this table is the last one. Total workplace fatalities fell 4% in 2024. Workplace homicides rose 2.6%. American workplaces are getting safer overall — equipment, transportation, falls, exposure — but they are not getting safer from other people.
To put 470 homicides in perspective: that is roughly one workplace homicide every 19 hours. BLS frames the broader figure this way — a worker died every 104 minutes from a work-related injury in 2024, compared to every 99 minutes in 2023.
Firearms dominate these incidents. In 2022, the most recent year with published weapon detail, 83% of workplace homicides involved gunshot wounds (BLS, 2021–2022). This has direct implications for security planning — particularly around visitor screening, access control systems, and the training of security personnel in threat detection and de-escalation.
Nearly 1 in 4 workplace homicides (24.6%) occurred while the victim was tending a retail establishment (BLS, 2021–2022). This makes retail security not just a loss-prevention measure but a life-safety necessity — a point reinforced by the fact that retail theft volume has been falling while the incidents that remain skew toward repeat offenders and organized crews. See our retail theft statistics for that breakdown.
For every fatal workplace violence incident, there are hundreds of nonfatal assaults, threats, and intimidation events:
The DART metric is particularly important because it captures incidents serious enough to require time off or job modifications. At 57,610 cases over a two-year period, workplace violence is causing real, measurable harm to workers and real, measurable cost to employers.
Women bear a disproportionate burden of nonfatal workplace violence:
This disparity is largely driven by the high concentration of women in healthcare and social assistance — the industry with the highest workplace violence rate by far.
Workplace violence is not evenly distributed across industries. Some sectors face dramatically higher risk:
| Industry/Occupation | DART Cases (2021–2022) | Rate per 10,000 FTE |
|---|---|---|
| Healthcare & social assistance | 41,960 (72.8% of all cases) | 14.2 |
| Educational services | 3,300 | 8.4 |
| Service occupations (total) | 25,320 | 7.4 |
| Psychiatric aides (highest single occupation) | — | 543.6 |
| All industries combined | 57,610 | 2.9 |
Source: BLS — Workplace Violence 2021–2022 Factsheet
The numbers are stark: healthcare and social assistance accounts for nearly three-quarters of all private-industry workplace violence. The rate of 14.2 per 10,000 FTE is nearly 5 times the all-industry rate of 2.9. Psychiatric aides face the single highest rate at an extraordinary 543.6 per 10,000 FTE — roughly 187 times the all-industry average.
Educational services rank second at 8.4 per 10,000 FTE, reflecting the violence that teachers, administrators, and support staff face in school environments.
Protective service occupations — including security guards — had the highest number of workplace homicides of any occupational group: 121 homicides in 2022 (BLS). This underscores the critical importance of proper training, equipment, supervision, and staffing levels for security officers.
Violence against healthcare workers has reached crisis levels, with data from multiple sources painting a deeply concerning picture:
Violence doesn't just injure workers — it drives them out of the profession entirely, and that exit carries a measurable price tag:
That turnover figure reframes the entire business case. Violence prevention in healthcare is not only a safety expense — it is a retention expense, and the retention math alone often justifies the security investment.
For hospitals and healthcare facilities, professional hospital security is no longer optional — it's a workforce retention strategy.
"We've seen the demand for hospital security increase dramatically over the past few years. Emergency departments, behavioral health units, and even reception areas are seeing more aggressive incidents. Our officers are trained specifically for healthcare environments — de-escalation, patient rights, HIPAA awareness — because hospital security isn't the same as building security. The stakes are different."
— Amanda DeAlmeida, Executive Vice President, Building Security Services
Workplace violence does not affect all workers equally. Understanding demographic patterns helps employers target prevention efforts where they're needed most. The breakdowns below reflect 2022 fatality data, the most recent year published at this level of demographic detail.
The racial disparity in fatal workplace violence is particularly concerning. Black workers were victims of workplace homicide at a rate nearly 3x their representation in the overall workforce. This data point should inform workplace safety planning — and underscores the importance of providing equitable security coverage across all workplaces and communities.
Workplace violence carries staggering financial costs, particularly in the healthcare sector. The AHA figures below were published in June 2025 and measure costs incurred in 2023:
| Cost Category | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total annual cost to U.S. hospitals | $18.27 billion | AHA (pub. 2025, 2023 costs) |
| Post-event costs (response, recovery) | $14.65 billion | AHA |
| Pre-event prevention spending | $3.62 billion | AHA |
| Hospital security spending (total) | $4.7 billion | Grossman & Choucair (PMC, 2024) |
| Spent directly on violence prevention | $847 million (18%) | Grossman & Choucair (PMC, 2024) |
| Security measures (environmental mods) | $185.2 million/year | AHA Report |
The cost imbalance is striking: hospitals spend $3.62 billion on prevention but face $14.65 billion in post-event costs. That's a 4:1 ratio of response to prevention, suggesting that significantly increasing investment in proactive security measures — including professional hospital security officers — could yield substantial returns.
The data points to a clear conclusion: workplace violence is widespread, costly, and disproportionately impacts certain industries and demographics. It is also the one workplace safety category that has not improved alongside the others — which makes it the area where deliberate intervention matters most.
Effective workplace violence prevention requires a multi-layered approach:
"Workplace violence prevention isn't just about having a guard at the door — though that matters. It's about creating layers of security: access control, visitor management, trained officers who can de-escalate, surveillance that provides situational awareness, and communication systems that connect everyone in an emergency. That's the approach we build for every client, whether it's a hospital, a corporate office, or a retail store."
— Amanda DeAlmeida, Executive Vice President, Building Security Services
There were 470 workplace homicides in 2024, up 2.6% from 458 in 2023, according to the BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. That works out to roughly one workplace homicide every 19 hours. Violent acts overall accounted for 733 workplace deaths in 2024.
Worse, relative to everything else. Total fatal work injuries fell 4% in 2024 to 5,070, and the fatal injury rate dropped from 3.5 to 3.3 per 100,000 FTE. Over the same period, workplace homicides rose 2.6%. American workplaces are getting safer from equipment, falls, and transportation incidents, but not from other people.
Healthcare and social assistance, by a wide margin. It accounts for 72.8% of all private-industry workplace violence cases — 41,960 DART cases — at a rate of 14.2 per 10,000 FTE, nearly five times the all-industry rate of 2.9. Educational services rank second at 8.4 per 10,000 FTE. Psychiatric aides face the highest single-occupation rate at 543.6 per 10,000 FTE.
Healthcare workers make up 10% of the U.S. workforce but experience 48% of nonfatal workplace violence injuries. The causes are structural: patients and visitors in medical distress, behavioral health populations, emergency departments operating around the clock, and open-access facilities that are difficult to secure. 81.6% of nurses reported experiencing at least one type of workplace violence in the past year.
In healthcare alone, $18.27 billion annually — $14.65 billion in post-event costs against just $3.62 billion in prevention spending, a 4:1 ratio of response to prevention. Turnover adds more: replacing a single bedside nurse averages $61,110, costing an average hospital between $3.9 million and $5.7 million per year.
It varies by whether the violence is fatal or nonfatal. For nonfatal violence, women account for 72.5% of cases, at a rate more than 3.5 times men's — largely reflecting women's concentration in healthcare. For fatal violence, Black workers made up 33.4% of workplace homicides despite being 12.6% of the workforce, and protective service occupations recorded the most homicides of any occupational group at 121.
Controlling building access. With 83% of workplace homicides involving firearms, screening who enters a facility is the single highest-impact measure available. Effective programs layer that with trained officers capable of de-escalation, visitor management, video monitoring, clear reporting policies, and a culture where employees can report threats without fear of retaliation.
Building Security Services provides trained security officers for hospitals, offices, retail locations, and commercial buildings. Our officers are trained in de-escalation, access control, and emergency response.
Get a Free Security Quote →All statistics are sourced from official government data (BLS Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses, OSHA), the American Hospital Association, and peer-reviewed research. DART (Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred) cases represent the most serious nonfatal incidents. Fatality data is current through 2024; detailed nonfatal and demographic breakdowns reflect the BLS 2021–2022 workplace violence factsheet, the most recent published at that level of detail. AHA cost figures were published in June 2025 and measure 2023 costs. All figures are the most recent available as of September 2026.
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