Lost time injury frequency rates (LTIFR)

Lost time injury frequency rates are one measure that can help you compare part of the work health and safety performance of your organisation against the broader industry.  

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About the Lost time injury frequency rates (LTIFR)

The Lost Time Injury frequency rate (LTIFR) measures the number of lost-time injuries per million hours worked during a single financial year. A lost-time injury is one that resulted in time lost from work of one day/shift or more. This includes injuries resulting in fatality or permanent disability. LTIFRs are useful for drawing conclusions about the factors that contribute to lost productivity, including inadequate injury prevention. However, they should not be used to evaluate WHS performance.

Lost time injury frequency rates by industry (2021-22)

The spreadsheet below shows Lost Time Injury Frequency Rates (LTIFR) by Industry as per the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC). This benchmark data are based on lost time injuries from workers’ compensation claims, and are likely to be an underestimate of all lost time injuries due to claims not being made for minor injuries.

Note: In September 2023, Safe Work Australia implemented improvements to the estimates of the working population used to calculate injury rates from the National Dataset for Compensation-based Statistics (NDS). As a result of these changes, a break in series occurs for work-related injury frequency and incidence rates using the NDS from 2021-22 onwards. Safe Work Australia advises caution when interpreting time series changes for rates calculated from the NDS spanning the period before and after this change.

Please see our report Measuring and reporting on work health and safety for more information about other WHS indicators or metrics that should be considered when assessing the work health and safety performance of your organisation.

Calculate your LTIFR

Select your industry from the list
Number of lost time injuries in accounting period (must be greater than zero)
Total hours worked in accounting period
 

What you need to know to calculate your LTIFR

To calculate your LTIFR, you will need to know:

  • The relevant industry for your organisation according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006
  • The number of lost time injuries that occurred in your organisation during a single financial year
  • The total number of hours worked by all employees of your organisation during the same period

A lost time injury is any injury that results in a fatality, permanent disability or time lost from work. It could be as little as one day or shift.

You should not include pre-existing conditions that weren’t sustained during the accounting period.

Calculating LTIFR

The formula to calculate an LTIFR is:

Lost time injuries in financial year

Hours worked in financial year 

x 1,000,000

Example:

In 2021, a building construction company had 2 people injured at work. One went to hospital for one week and the other was away for one full day. 

The company employs 375 staff, some of whom work part-time hours. The total hours worked in 2021 for all employees was 700,500.

To calculate the company’s LTIFR:

  • there are 2 people who have lost time from work for one shift or more
  • total hours worked (for all business employees) of 700,500 hours over the period
  • use the formula: (2 / 700,500) x 1,000,000
  • this equals a rate of 2.86, which is lower than the building construction industry rate of 5.6.

Number of lost time injuries during the year: 2

Hours worked during the year: 700,500

LTIFR = 2.86

Industry: Building construction (ANZSIC level 1.2)

Industry LTIFR = 5.6 

Limitations of LTIFRs

  • LTIFRs are intended as a guide only and should be interpreted carefully.
  • LTIFRs are useful for drawing conclusions about the factors that contribute to lost productivity, including inadequate injury prevention. However, they should not be used to evaluate WHS performance. For more information, and information about additional WHS indicators and metrics, please see the report Measuring and Reporting on Work Health and Safety.
  • These benchmarks are based on lost time injuries from workers’ compensation claims, and are likely to be an underestimate of all lost time injuries due to claims not being made for minor injuries.
  • LTIFRs are not recommended for small businesses, where changes to the number of injuries or workers’ compensation claims are likely to result in a LTIFR that is much larger or smaller than expected.

Resources

  • Download the data used to calculate LTIFRs in the Lost time injury frequency rate spreadsheet
  • Our workers’ compensation dashboard contains frequency and incidence rates of serious injuries and illnesses by industry, which may be useful.