City to country: the disparity in workers’ compensation data

A snapshot

In September 2025, Safe Work Australia published analysis exploring how work health and safety (WHS) outcomes vary across Australia’s urban, regional, and remote areas. The data shows that, overall, the incidence rate of serious claims and the time lost burden of work-related injuries and illnesses are greater in remote Australia compared to major cities. There are, however, key differences across urban, regional and remote areas.

Key insights on geographic disparities

Higher WHS burden in the most remote areas

The analysis shows that, at the national level, workers in ‘Very Remote Australia’ (the most remote areas in terms of relative access to services) had poorer WHS outcomes compared to workers in ‘Major Cities’ (see the definitions below).

It revealed that:

• At 16.6 claims per 1,000 employees, the incidence rate of serious claims is 56.7% higher in Very Remote Australia relative to Major Cities (at 10.6 claims per 1,000 employees).
• At 384 weeks per 1,000 employees, the time lost burden of serious claims is 40.1% higher in Very Remote Australia relative to Major Cities (274 weeks per 1,000 employees). 

This means that workers in the most remote areas get seriously sick or injured more and spend longer away from work as a result of work-related injuries/illnesses.

Injury types vary by remoteness

The analysis shows that claims for diseases and mental health conditions are more common in urban areas, while physical injuries are more common in remote regions:

• Remote and Very Remote Australia show higher proportions of Traumatic joint/ligament and muscle/tendon injuries and Fractures.
• Conversely, Mental health conditions and Infectious diseases are less common in these areas.

Industry composition may influence WHS outcomes

One factor contributing to some of these differences is that the industry composition of employment differs significantly across urban, regional, and rural areas. 

Industries such as Mining and Agriculture, forestry and fishing account for a higher proportion of employment in more remote areas – Mining accounts for 36.9% of employment in Very Remote Australia (compared to 0.9% in Major Cities), while Agriculture, forestry and fishing accounts for 9.0% of employment in Very Remote Australia (compared to 0.5% in Major Cities).

About the data

Analysis is based on serious claims for workers’ compensation drawn from the National Dataset of Compensation-based Statistics.
Results are based on a 3-year period (2019–20 to 2021–22) to reduce volatility.

The analysis excludes: 

• claims with missing postcode data, and
• ACT claims due to insufficient data outside major cities.

In September 2025, Safe Work Australia published the article, ‘Work health and safety across Australia’s regions’, on its Our Data. Your Stories. website. The article features interactive visualisations that allows users to explore workers’ compensation data by Remoteness areas, injury type, and employment composition.

Definitions

1. Serious claims are ‘All accepted workers’ compensation claims’ which have resulted in one or more working weeks lost.
2. The serious claims incidence rate is calculated as the count of serious claims per 1,000 employed persons.
3. The serious claims time lost burden is calculated as the total number of weeks of paid compensation expressed per 1,000 employed persons.
4. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) classifications for remoteness – the Remoteness Areas (Australian Statistics Geographic Standard, 3rd edition): Major Cities, Inner Regional, Outer Regional, Remote and Very Remote.
5. The industries referred to in this article are categories used by the ABS Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC).