Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — Around 95 percent of workers in Saudi Arabia enjoy coverage of basic healthcare services, according to the Statistics bulletin 2024 of Health and Safety at Workplace, released by the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) on Tuesday.

The occupational injury rate among workers aged 15 and above reached 245.7 non-fatal injuries and 1.1 fatal injuries per 100,000 workers, excluding road traffic accidents.

The survey showed that 39 percent of workers received training on occupational health and safety procedures, while 40.4 percent had access to a dedicated health and safety management office at their workplace, and 32.2 percent underwent periodic medical examinations provided by their employers. The findings revealed that 5.4 percent of workers operate dangerous machinery, 2.1 percent handle chemicals, and one percent are exposed to heavy metals.

Over the past 12 months, the most common work-related health issue was stress, affecting 2.1 percent of workers, followed by eye and vision problems at 2 percent. Meanwhile, 79.5 percent of workers reported not experiencing any work-related health problems during the same period.

GASTAT noted that the estimates are based on self-reported data collected through household field visits conducted as part of the 2024 National Health Survey, except for occupational injury rates, which were calculated using registry data from the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health, combined with GASTAT’s 2024 population estimates.