The occupational fatalities rate is the number of people who die from work related illness or accident over a specific interval of time. It is largely determined by the types of jobs in which the people are employed. Occupations such as mining, farming and heavy industry are associated with much higher occupational fatality rates than occupations such as office and retail sales workers.
The map above shows the occupational fatalities rates for the 50 US states. The values shown are the number of deaths per 100,000 workers between 1997 and 1999. It is one of a large number of interesting maps that can be found in the West Virginia Health Status Atlas, a website maintained by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.
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